In late May/early June, our first flax garden was planted next to the wash house. After tilling three times and raking up the weeds, three rows of organic flax seed were sown. A border row of onions grown over the winter was transplanted on three sides to thwart any critters that might help themselves to any emerging flax plants. Straw mulch was strewn inbetween all the rows to help prevent future weeds.
Late July produced some plants with lovely blue flowers. The garden is continued to be watered every Sunday Chace-Cory House is open due to the severe drought we are having, and hoping our well does not run dry as some others have done.
Why did we plant flax? To educate the public about its importance in the colonial life of those who lived here. We have a flax brake in the wash house and a flax spinning wheel in the main house that we talk about during the tours, so it is natural to grow the plant that we talk about having such an impact on everyday life 300 years ago and even today.
Quoting from the book listed at the bottom of this article: Sheep provided not only mutton for the dinner table, but also wool for clothing. In the days before the widespread use of cotton (and before the invention of artificial fibers), almost every piece of clothing contained some wool. The wool had to be sheared from the sheep, cleaned, carded, and spun into yarn before it could be knitted or woven into cloth. Native plants and berries were used to dye the wool cloth into different colors, but that was an extra step that was not necessary in making day-to-day work clothes.
Clothing could also be made from flax, an annual plant that could be woven into linen cloth. Linen was extremely sturdy, and homemakers used it for a variety of household items, including undergarments, table coverings, and napkins. Enterprising weavers combined wool and linen fibers into a fabric called linsey-woolsey which was both strong and comfortable and combined the best qualities of each component.
Creating linen fibers from flax was an even greater chore than creating wool fibers from sheep. The desirable fibers in the flax plant lie under a tough bark and around a hard core. To make the flax fibers suitable for spinning, the flax stalks first had to be harvested, rippled, retted, braked, and swingled. Rippling stripped the seed heads from the stalks. Bundles of stalks were then weighted down in a stream, or retted, for five days to make the central core brittle enough to be broken into short pieces. 
Next, the stalks were braked in a wooden press with teeth that broke the stalks but not the fibers. Finally, the bundles were hung over the end of an upright board and beaten with a long wooden swingling knife with scraping, downward strokes, leaving a collection of fibers ready to be combed and spun. Both braking and swingling were arduous tasks requiring great strength, and were generally seen as men’s work. A good worker could swingle forty pounds of flax a day.
Obviously, we will not be rippling, retting, braking, or swingling our flax at Chace-Cory House. But you can come and visit the flax garden and take the tour to see the brake and spinning wheel once used in making the linen for the many households who lived here.
[excerpt from the book “The Thirteen Colonies: Rhode Island” by Andrew A. Kling]