by Sandra Hutchinson

I’ve long been a fan of native Arkansan P. Allen Smith, who first achieved widespread fame with his PBS television shows P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home and P. Allen Smith’s Garden to Table. He’s a garden designer, horticulturalist, conservationist, lifestyle influencer and book author, and as I recently discovered, a really down-to-earth and friendly guy. (Full credit: this photo is from P. Allen Smith’s website.) By the way, he goes simply by “Allen.”

This March, I met up with my midwest-based sister, niece and grand-niece, for a mini-family reunion in Little Rock. The centerpiece event of the long weekend was visiting Allen’s Moss Mountain Farm, about 45 minutes outside of Little Rock, where we helped celebrate Allen’s 65th birthday (along with many other people who had bought tickets) with a lunch, and a tour of Allen’s home and the farm. As if visiting the farm and meeting Allen wasn’t enough, we actually stayed in his former home in Little Rock where he filmed his Garden Home TV show, which is now rented out by its current owners as an Airbnb.

Moss Mountain Farm is Allen’s 550-acre farm bordering the Arkansas River, where he built his main residence over 20 years ago — a large, brick Georgian revival home that overlooks the river. He has developed the property to include both formal and informal gardens, areas for sheep and other livestock, his art studio, a supplemental kitchen building, an art studio, a barn for events, and more. He has recently built some eco-friendly buildings on the farm that demonstrate sustainable construction, and as at the founder of the Heritage Poultry Conservancy, Allen maintains over twenty heritage poultry breeds in a large poultry area. The farm is open to the public at various times for tours and special events, and can be rented for weddings. See website, here.

One of the reasons we were excited to visit the farm in mid-March was the expectation of seeing many thousands of daffodils in bloom in the meadows, but unfortunately, as Allen explained to the group assembled for lunch, the blooms were delayed because of an unusually cold February.

We did get to see Allen’s flock of White Dorper sheep, said to be “an early 20th century South African breed prized for its meat rather than its hair.” Here they are under an ancient oak tree in front of the main house.

Our visit included welcome refreshments in the gathering barn, an overview description of the property by a staff member, a tour of the interior of Allen’s home and associated outbuildings (his art studio and an additional kitchen), and a tour of some formal gardens as well as the vegetable garden which was just starting to show some new growth. We had lunch in the barn, and then had a choice of either walking to the heritage poultry area, or visiting the two new sustainable buildings Allen had had constructed elsewhere on the property. We chose the birds.

The interior of Allen’s home is striking, with a mix of antiques, sculpture, prints and paintings (including some done by him), and a two-story screened porch facing the river, with one floor set up as a sleeping porch that includes a stand-alone copper bathtub at one end. The swan that dominates the front hallway is one that Allen said formerly lived in a pond on the property.

The first floor has back-to-back living rooms, both with fireplaces. One living room has a formal dining table and area at the far end, and the other, the main kitchen. There are books piled everywhere — design, gardening, art and cook books.

We were even invited to view the master bedroom, as well as a guest room and the attic space set up for children.

The home is built on the hillside facing a steep slope down to the river. Only from the rear do you realize that the home encompasses three floors plus the finished attic.

The outbuildings that flank the main house (do notice the two levels of screened porch) consist of an art studio, the the right, above, and an additional kitchen and dining space that can be used for catered events. Outside the additional kitchen building is an exterior stainless kitchen, below.

Below is the interior of the art studio. Allen does watercolors and sketches. Giclee prints are available for sale on his website, as well as in the gift shop at the farm.

There wasn’t much at all in bloom on the day we visited, so my garden photos don’t do the property justice. But here are some views of various garden areas, below.

In the heritage poultry area, we encountered many feathered creatures. Not even sure what these are!

Lunch was served in the barn, and consisted of a salad with grilled chicken and a selection of tasty desserts.

At lunch, Allen welcomed everyone and said he would be available to meet people individually afterwards. He was gracious and warm.

Interesting arrangement on the barn wall, below.

There are many opportunities to visit Moss Mountain Farm listed on the website, here. Please note that if you hope to meet Allen, you should look for events that specify that he will be in attendance.

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A few months prior to our visit, while making the arrangements for our trip to Little Rock, I had stumbled upon an airbnb listing for a three bedroom home in one of the historic districts, not far from the Governor’s Mansion. Imagine my surprise when I read the description and learned that the property had previously been owned by Allen and was the original inspiration and frequent subject of his public television show called P. Allen Smith’s Garden Home. It was available for our dates, so of course I had to book it!

Here are some photos of both the exterior and interior. The photo with the daffodils is taken from the side street, looking at the side of the home, with the garage to the left, and the covered breezeway in the middle that connects to the house. The kitchen has a commercial-style Viking range, and there’s a great front porch. My sister, a pianist, especially enjoyed the baby grand piano. Magnolias were in bloom.

I can’t say we took advantage of the commercial range, as we either dined out or got takeout. Takeout included Gus’s “world famous” hot & spicy fried chicken (with a side of fried green tomatoes). Website here.

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If you make it to Little Rock, I highly recommend visiting the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. Operated by the National Park Service, the visitor center is diagonally across the street from Central High School, which was the site of the controversial desegregation in 1957 after the US Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional (in Brown vs. Board of Education). The exhibits in the visitor center cover many important events in the civil rights movement. We took a fantastic walking tour by one of the rangers, that went from the visitor center to the exterior of Central High. We learned that all but two of the original nine black students who were involved in the contentious integration are still living. I want to give a shout out to the park ranger who led the tour. Sadly, I can’t find my notes that had her name in them

We did take a drive over to the William J. Clinton Presidential Library, but it was late in the day and it didn’t make sense to pay the rather hefty admission price to go in at that time.

There was much more to do in Little Rock and its environs than we had time for. I would love to return to Moss Mountain Farm during warmer weather, and I wished we had more time to explore the city’s historic districts. Maybe next time!