Selecting garden seeds, hotbeds and cold frames, and planting, maintaining and harvesting garden produce were a very important part of 19th century life. Although foodstuffs were available in the stores most farmers relied on the success of their gardens for their year-round diet.

At Carriage Hill Farm, there is on-going research into what varieties were available to the ordinary farmer in the 1880s and what might have been planted in this area. References have been gleaned from period diaries, advertisements, books, papers, seed catalogs, and agricultural reports. 

Carriage Hill Farm has both a kitchen garden and a truck patch in their 19th century locations. The kitchen garden is a relatively small garden area close to the house. It was planted with those small quantities of vegetables that were most likely to be used fresh in the summer kitchen. The northern end of the garden was planted with herbs, so they would be convenient for summer time cooking. The size, location and appearance of the kitchen garden was described by the members of the Arnold family who were remembering the farm at the turn of the century.

The garden layout is typical of 19th century German gardens both in Europe and in America. They were made with small beds with walkways between them, and they were usually fenced. At Carriage Hill, heirloom varieties are found in the garden such as tomatoes, carrots, beans and potatoes.