New garden center set to open in Aquebogue this fall

Gardenworx Farm and Garden will open full-time in Aquebogue this fall.

The family-owned company is moving into the greenhouse and fields formerly occupied by Long Season Farms, which closed its location on the property earlier this summer.

The garden center will sell perennials and annuals, cemetery blankets and Christmas trees and wreaths, among other things, in addition to offering an apple orchard and sunflower maze. The sunflower maze is expected to open come fall. The orchard will eventually offer apple-picking, but it won’t open this fall.

Prominent among Gardenworx products, however, will be its own line of CBD products. Business owners Connie and Joe Arigo, with partner Natasha Van de Wetering, are promoting Zeal CBD, produced from hemp grown last summer in the field next to Long Season Farms. Their products hit shelves a few months ago.

Ms. Arigo, who lives in Aquebogue, said her friends using the product say it’s helped with various ailments such as menstrual cramps and migraines.

“We both witness people that have had a lot of side effects from prescription drugs, so to be able to offer them something at a fair price, where you’re not getting ripped off — it’s a quality product and it’s really helping people,”

said Ms. Van de Wetering, a Mattituck resident.

She described a woman who approached their stand at the Mattituck Strawberry Festival who “looked miserable,” with a frown and tension in her shoulders.

“We just gave her a little bit of cream and we put it on her back, and she came up to me later with a huge smile and she gave me a high five,” Ms. Van de Wetering said. “She looked like a completely different woman. She was happy, and it worked, and that’s what keeps us going. That’s what makes everything worth it.”

The garden center is not currently growing a hemp crop. Gardenworx Farm and Garden will be open seasonally, from around Easter in the spring through mid-December. As the years go on, Ms. Arigo hopes to expand their products and services.

“It’s going to be an adventure,” she said. “Each year, whatever our creative minds can put together, we’re going to do it. We’re just going to go for it.”

Gardenworx has another location in Miller Place, which has been open for five years.