The winery garden at Jordan Estate

a diverse expanse

What began two decades ago as a simple tomato patch to supply our chef with ingredients for Harvest Lunches has blossomed into one of the most diverse, prolific gardens of its size in Northern California. Nearly 100 different varieties of fruits and vegetables are now grown here with a thoughtful focus on the diversity of seasonal maturity cycles, not just plants. We believe the only way to truly be seasonal and local is to oversee our own food-growing program on our own land. We also believe that the healthy biodiversity of the winery garden is achieved by also raising chickens, goats and cows nearby, as well as providing homes for bees.

Chef Knoll picking tomatoes in the winery garden at Jordan Estate
A person in an apron holding a basket of tomatoes

home-grown ingredients

Our Healdsburg garden not only serves as a starting point for our chef’s recipes, but also as an experiment for what grows best in our terroir. Alexander Valley is blessed with a diversity of soils and microclimates, so growing trials occur constantly to determine which plants grow best in different rotations. Our chef’s philosophy also focuses on cultivating produce that requires meticulous care and is too delicate for typical transport, and nearly all produce is grown from seed or bare root. Director of Agricultural Operations Brent Young ensures the garden is farmed to the culinary staff’s specifications.

A person holding a basket of flowers

flowering beauty

An expansive cutting garden is filled with flowers used in floral arrangements for guests to enjoy throughout the winery. Though annual varieties change, perennials found in the Jordan garden include David Austin roses, Dahlias, Freesia and a variety of succulents. The cutting garden is fully fenced to protect blooms from resident deer, but guests are welcome to step inside and admire the sights and scents of the flowers.

A home for mason bees
A bee on lavender

farm biodiversity

Our winery garden is more than a place to grow food and flowers. A tenet of sustainable agriculture is to recreate the kind of diversity that is found in natural ecosystems but can be lost in traditional crop row farming. That is why the Jordan garden has evolved into its own petit farm. There is an apiary for beekeeping, a chicken coop filled with hens that supply our kitchen with eggs, and a corral of cows and goats that eat unwanted grasses and unused parts of harvested vegetables. Their manure is incorporated into compost and added back to the soil for natural fertilizer. Mason bee houses hang from the stone fruit trees to encourage essential pollinators. Crops are rotated throughout the year to replenish the soil and to ensure variety in our chef’s recipes. Volunteers and seeded plants, such as squash and purslane, grow between rows. Having a balanced ecosystem helps enrich the soil and prevent weed, insect pest and disease problems. Crop diversity, crop rotations, intercropping, conservation tillage and incorporation of organic matter are all important components of farm biodiversity.

Guests who walk through the winery garden on the Estate Tour & Tasting and Vineyard Hikes experience all of the vivid sights, tastes and smells of this special place.
Experience Jordan

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