The Slater Mill now has several historic gardens for use in public programs at the Sylvanus Brown House. The gardens include fruits and vegetables, dye and fiber plants, culinary herbs, medicinals, and even cotton.  All are native plants that would have been grown during the heyday of the Mill, 1790-1830.

The visitors to the museum come from all over the world, including local school groups.  Attendance totals over 20,000 each year.The historic gardens are on a detailed, self guided tour and are often discussed by the docents. Public awareness of the garden project is created with the support of the museum’s website and online social media.

The garden benefits visitors by demonstrating the connections between the use of plants in pre-industrial life and how they became a vital part of American industries.  Many of the plants in the gardens are used in the adjacent Sylvanus Brown House; flex and cotton for spinning into linen, and vegetables, fruits and herbs for cooking demonstrations in the open hearth fireplace. 

Several days each week, you can find the volunteers working in the gardens. They will be planting, maintaining, pruning, instructing the museum staff and harvesting fruits and vegetables for museum use and food bank donations.