About The Farm and Its House and Gardens

The Farm and House. Nixon Farm is a 200-acre fourth-generation farm located in what is now roughly the center of Jacksonville, Arkansas, about 15 miles north of downtown Little Rock. Dana Daniels Nixon and her husband, Wally (whose great-grandparents bought the place around 1900), built a “new” farmhouse and moved from Little Rock to the farm in 1985; they immediately began constructing gardens on several acres around the house. In 1994, having “retired” from law practice in Little Rock, Dana began selling flowers to local floral designers and in 1995 expanded the flowers to a “farm” garden in addition to the more formally sited “house” gardens.

The house, constructed of narrow cypress siding that has grayed naturally, contains approximately 2300 square feet on the first floor, plus 1500 square feet of covered and screened porches and patio, and is exceptionally well designed for dinners and cocktail parties, as well as for retreats and meetings. It was intentionally constructed to look and feel old, to mix better with the other original farm buildings, and contains a fascinating assortment of antique windows and doors, brick floors, and wainscoting of cypress cut from the farm. There is a beautiful wet bar constructed of walnut and cypress from the farm at the rear of the living room with double doors leading to the screened back porch. Double doors also open to this porch from the dining room, which seats 10 at its antique table.

The circular drive winds through a grove of old hardwoods and past the original farmhouse, constructed from approximately 1865 through the 1940’s. It is now used as a drying shed and hopefully will someday be restored as an office or perhaps a bed and breakfast cottage.

Home

The Gardens. The house gardens include the backyard garden with a vine-covered pergola and central fountain; the east “round garden” with a fountain pond; the entry garden with a large naturalized pond and fountains; the back gardens with over 100 feet of rose covered arbors, a lily pond with fountains and a fire pit for bonfires; the “playing field” gardens, two gardens flanking a central lawn perfect for large tents and a dance floor; and the rose garden, a work in progress with a 90-foot rose-covered archway leading through beds of shrub roses. At the north end of this garden and at the west end of the playing field is the summerhouse, a screened structure with a shaded porch. To the west of these is the farm garden where annuals are grown in rows and the wildflower area, a 15 acre field running north-south through the property. The gardens now cover about 10 acres and can easily contain up to 350 people for a grand party.

The gardens are ever changing and will never be finished, at least according to Dana and her crew. However, bloom time generally begins in March with bulbs (daffodils, tulips and narcissus), forsythia and fruit tree blossoms, continue through spring with flowering shrubs and trees, roses, peonies, dianthus and various wildflowers. Summer flowers begin approximately in June and continue through August; they include practically everything that will grow in central Arkansas and do well as a cut flower. Fall brings Sweet Annie, asters, goldenrod, marvelous salvias and chrysanthemums to mix with still blooming summer flowers.

Home