Rooftop Garden: Courtesy: Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia

When some hotel restaurants say their ingredients are fresh, they’re not kidding. Some come right from their gardens.

It’s part of a new farm-to-table hospitality trend, with the emphasis on ”green,” and a big effort to keep things organic. That includes using biodegradable soaps and sprays and weeding by hand to avoid having to use chemicals.

The Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort near Miami has quite an extensive garden, as befits its subtropical climate. In addition to a wide variety of herbs and vegetables including lemon grass, chocolate mint and eggplant, the property is also fertile ground for bananas, sugar cane, Meyer lemons, mangoes and star fruit. Some of the kitchen waste is used as compost. On any given day, the chefs can be seen gathering the ingredients for meals, as well as giving garden tours. Head Chef Daniel Buss is planning a new addition to the menu: fresh fruit jams and chutney.

The Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver has a 2,100-square-foot herb garden, which also includes several beehives. More than 60 varieties of herbs, fruits and vegetables are grown throughout the year, and then chef-harvested daily for use in the hotel kitchens.

The Four Seasons Philadelphia hotel also has an extensive rooftop garden. Each bed is filled with soil made from hotel compost. The garden produces four types of oregano, sage, thyme and rosemary, basil, beets, as well as bok choy and even kiwi fruit.

Chicago’s Marriott Downtown hotel also has an in-house honey-making operation and an herb and vegetable garden on the roof. The crop of herbs, fruits and vegetables supply most of the summertime needs. It includes kale, heirloom tomatoes and peppers, and blueberries and raspberries.

What the hotel can’t grow, it gets from a local farmer.

And a 600-square-foot herb garden has just been planted on a terrace at Baltimore’s Harbor Court Hotel.  It’s designed to yield dozens of herbs and vegetables, including different types of parsley, cilantro, basil – and several different kinds of mint for cocktails.