-Submitted photo
Chloe Danley Greiner, 17, of Runnells, poses with a bouquet of flowers at Howell's Greenhouse and Pumpkin Patch near Cumming.

CUMMING — Just off a gently curving highway west of U.S. Interstate 35 in southern Iowa sits a diversified farm bustling with goats, sunflowers, pumpkins, fresh flowers, chickens, Christmas trees and more.

The Howell farm — best known now as Howell’s Greenhouse and Pumpkin Patch — was purchased in 1878 with a total of 960 acres near Cumming.

Today, 800 of those acres still belong to the family farm. While the farm started out as a traditional operation with row crops, cattle and hogs, during the 1980s farm crisis, Fred Howell decided to dabble in alternative crops and planted strawflowers and statice that would be used for dried flowers.

The family added pumpkins in 1994 along with more flowers and greenhouses. In 1996, they began welcoming school kids for field trips. As the farm continued to evolve, it moved from conventional farming to agrotourism and agritainment.

In the fall, visitors will find three acres of colorful flowers available to be picked, along with 18 acres of pumpkins, an 8-acre corn maze and fields of huge sunflowers.

-Submitted photo
Sunflowers stretch as far as the eye can see at Howell's Greenhouse and Pumpkin Patch near Cumming. What began as a traditional row crop farm has since diversified into a place where live and dried flowers are offered along with many other products.

There’s also designated pasture ground for endless baby goat cuddles and a barn brimming with items for sale, including dried flower arrangements, candles, jams and jellies, and farm decor. The rest of the land is rented to neighbors for their cattle and row crops.

Depending upon the season, there’s also a wide variety of other activities, including a paintball range, a slide inside a giant cow figure, duck races, a mud pie making station, pedal tractors, wiggle cars, swings, slides, a corn pool, wagon rides, a bathtub train, pumpkin cannon, bee lines, jump pad, grain wagon hoops, two-seater trikes, corn cannon, combine observation deck, hula cow and hula goat, a human-sized hamster wheel, a chalk farm, teeter totters, goat feeding and an obstacle course.

The farm also hosts numerous special events, including trick or treating, a pumpkin smash, an Easter egg hunt, the annual Iris Spectacle and the Flower Festival with baby goats. Beverages and food are also available for purchase.

Fred and Cindy Howell, along with their three children, Jennifer, Josh and Erin, own the Madison County farm, which has been in the family for six generations.

“We have a corn maze every year. We design it and have a company plant the corn via GPS. The corn maze is 10 acres in size,” said Jenny Howell.

Although the farm closed its fall operations for the year Nov. 2, the farmer’s market is open year-round.

But just up the road on Howell Court sits Howell Tree Farm, which was established in 1970 and offers a variety of trees for landscaping, including Christmas trees, wreaths and swags. The farm also offers a tree spade service to move or plant trees. Howell Tree Farm offers 40,000 trees, ranging from Canaan fir and Colorado blue spruce to white pines and Scotch pines spread across 50 acres.

Approximately 2,000 visitors on average will stop by the farm starting in mid-November to pick out a Christmas tree.