Since 1908, the Gastler family has raised chickens, milked cows, grown strawberries, cultivated our own renowned strains of pansies, and raised large-scale ornamental trees and shrubs as a nursery business.
TODAY, YOU CAN SEE THE HISTORY OF FOUR GENERATIONS MADE AVAILABLE FOR OUR COMMUNITY AS AN EVENT SPACE FOR YOUR CREATIVE, WELLNESS, AND CELEBRATORY ENDEAVORS.
Meet the Manager, Leah Gastler
Leah is the 4th generation to bring new life and business to Gastler Farm. She started in the event business hosting classical music concerts in the farmhouse through a non-profit that she founded: Kalmia Garden Chamber Music and Arts Foundation, which continues its annual performances today. As a classically trained violist, she holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Rice University, and Bard College Conservatory of Music, and has toured and performed around the world including at Carnegie Hall and with the Houston Symphony.
Leah is passionate about big ideas and creative endeavors, and loves pouring her energy into creating a space for such ideas to flourish. At Gastler Farm, she is able to marry her innate love of nature and plants, with the expansive energy of human creation, curating a space that both inspires and gives opportunity for ideas to be realized.
Fun Facts:
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From 1937-1990 Gastler Farm was locally famous for their pansy fields, which blanketed the front fields with color every Spring. Charles H. Gastler bred his own unique strains of pansy seed, known for their large faces and robust stems, and the farm became a springtime destination for CT residents, including Katherine Hepburn!
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The stone from our stone walls comes from our own property — over the many years digging trees from the ground as a landscape nursery, the stone would accumulate in huge piles along the property lines — it was only around 2010 that Tim Gastler, in his retirement, decided to create the stonewall landscape as it is today.
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Between 2016 and 2018 the Middletown Garden Club took on the project of photographing and cataloguing our gardens as designed by Tim Gastler. Thanks to their efforts, Kalmia Garden at Gastler Farm is now documented in the Smithsonian Institution’s Archives of American Gardens.
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Kind Words
We can't thank Kalmia Garden at Gastler Farm enough for the memories!
The grounds are STUNNING – you only need little touches as decoration. There are gardens and ornamental trees everywhere as the backdrop. And so many lovely settings for different parts of the event, like an outdoor ceremony space surrounded by a gorgeous stone wall and hydrangeas, a rustic gazebo with twinkle lights for a bar, a fire pit for late-night fun, & a huge patio to set up a tent & tables for meal and dancing. Our portraits in the trees & gardens with the sun setting make us so happy. If you’re someone who enjoys DIY, this venue is the dream. If not, you can bring in whatever vendors you want to make your vision happen! The farm is in my hometown, and will always be the most special place to go back and visit. We can’t thank Gastler Farm enough for the memories.
