We are Diana and Traylor Renfro, originally from Opelika, Alabama. After college at Auburn, we married and followed our careers to Charlotte, NC where we raised two daughters. Traylor worked in Human Resources and Diana in Nutrition and Writing. We both always loved gardening and growing vegetables, flowers, and landscape plants. Our family loves good food and beautiful gardens.
We found these 45 acres late in 1999, on a pilgrimage out of the city into the highlands of Ashe County. On a drizzly November day, we walked the property, seeing its potential. At its center, a wide bowl-like meadow with boggy springs drained into a winding branch. On the eastern slope, bare hardwoods sheltered an understory of club moss, rhododendron, and Mountain Laurel. The western slope, steep, rocky, and had been traversed with cattle, leaving line drawings in the earth. Higher slopes were covered with brambles and freeze-dried wildflowers. One fenced sunny bluff was a hayfield, and below that, grew healthy green rye grass. The old farmhouse was unusable due to a fallen tree which exposed the interior to the elements, but two large barns and half a dozen other outbuildings seemed to be in good condition. Everything needed attention. No one had lived on the property for fifteen years.
We felt a need to restore it, and we couldn’t wait to get started. Today, it’s the same place with amenities. And we believe as stewards of the land, it is meant to be shared. So, come stay for a while and discover North Carolina's "coolest corner."