Smith Castle

55 Richard Smith Drove | North Kingstown, RI 02852

Smith’s Castle, a National Historic site, is located on Mills Cove, a beautiful spot rich in RI history. Its mission is to focus on three periods of the site’s history: the Native American era, early colonial days and the plantation era. The gardens we are restoring and creating support that mission and also provide us with the opportunity to teach visitors sound gardening practices of the modern era. We participate in three events during the growing season: Opening day in May, the Strawberry Festival in June and the Harvest Festival in September where we give demos on dye making, spinning and garden tours.

The original garden, which we have largely restored, reflects one belonging to a wealthy 18th century landowner. The plants in this garden are historically accurate for that time period. We have also incorporated a diversity of plants grown for their beauty and for their usefulness.

We are developing two more gardens. The first is a colonial dye, medicinal and household use herb garden; and, the second is a three sisters’ garden which shows a Native American planting tradition. We are creating signage and handouts to id the plants and their uses in the three gardens.