BLACKFALDS — A time to plant. A time to prune. A time to pull weeds and a time to give thanks for the lovely little lady bugs that consume armies of infinitesimal invaders.

After 15 years as a clothing designer, Jeanette Jones has found her niche far from the clothing racks.

A farm kid from Fahler, Jones is most at home among the herbs, fruits and vegetables in her U-pick gardens and in matching antique furniture to the large home she and her husband Wes have developed into Lady Bug Bed and Breakfast.

“I always plant by the phases of the moon,” said Jones as she piloted her quad between rows of ordinary and not-so-ordinary fruits and vegetables growing in the organic garden plot where her customers will fill their baskets later in the growing season.

Vegetables harvested from the tops are planted under the full moon. Root vegetables are planted when the moon is dark.

There are peas and carrots, rhubarb and potatoes, salad greens and onions. There is a small section of Rhodiola rosea — a grassy herb Jones believes has all the properties of ginseng, along with a few bonuses.

And there is garlic. Rows and rows of garlic.

It’s her favourite.

“We’re known for our garlic,” said Jones, who moved with Wes a little more than two years ago to the site northeast of Blackfalds.

The couple had been running an organic U-pick just outside of Markerville, along the banks of the Medicine River. But the place was a little hard for customers to reach and husband Wes wanted to be closer to his job with the Agriculture Financial Services Corp. office in Red Deer.

They decided to seek out something closer to the city and settled on the first place they found.

It was a mess, said Jones. There was a big greenhouse in the front yard and the previous owner had obviously tried a few different things outdoors, including saskatoons and Colorado spruce.

From the look of the place, he had been unable to keep up with the demands.

What struck the couple was that this was a place where Jones could focus on two things: growing organic produce and creating a new bed and breakfast for people looking to escape to the country for a day or so.

Customers at the Markerville garden had often commented that they thought it would be a beautiful place to spend the night, said Jones. So when she and Wes looked through the place at Blackfalds, they saw through the tall grass, the weeds, the kitschy décor and the monstrous greenhouse.

All it would need was a little imagination and a lot of hard work. They tore down the greenhouse and replaced it with a lawn and the beginnings of an orchard.

Behind the house, Jones found plots of rich, black soil surrounded by pasture and native trees — a perfect buffer zone to shield her crops from any chemicals that might drift in from neighbouring farms.

The transformation from the day she and Wes first viewed the property to present day is nothing short of amazing. A main-floor workshop has been converted to a massive sitting area, with a commercial kitchen under construction off to the far side.

Upstairs, tacky red-and-white-checked curtains have been replaced and a small bedroom has been converted to a luxurious guest bathroom complete with a claw-footed tub.

While she won’t be able to bring the house and its accouterments along, Jones has joined with fellow producers in the Lacombe area to showcase their efforts at Brunch on the Beach, scheduled for Gull Lake Centre on Sunday, Aug. 16.

With Jones and beef producer Marcella Van Styland leading the way, the group of 16 producers have hired a chef and a jazz band to help put together a program they hope will introduce more people to locally-grown and raised foods.

Chef Tim Wood, operator of the Eco Café at Pigeon Lake, will create a brunch menu made entirely of locally-grown foods, including pork, beef, vegetables and ancient grains.

Each of the producers will have a booth, said Jones.

Brunch on the Beach was created under an Alberta Agriculture and Food program to help producers develop niches in agri-tourism. The group has printed 200 tickets, available for $25 each from Ellis Bird Farm, Lacombe UFA, Sunny 94 radio station, Everything Nice antique shop in Lacombe and Luymes Apiaries.

Information is also available from Jones at 403-782-0301 or from Marcella Van Styland at 403-784-3519.

Contact Brenda Kossowan at bkossowan@reddeeradvocate.com.