Many luxury resorts have a master chef in their restaurant kitchen, but how about an on-site master gardener and seed savior? At Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tennessee, at the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, John Coykendall has filled that role since 1999. An internationally renowned horticulturalist—and a classically trained artist—Coykendall oversees four acres of gardens, which provides produce used in the inn’s trademark “Foothills Cuisine,” a refined spin on traditional southern cooking, alongside ingredients sourced from nearby Appalachian farmers and producers. Coykendall has also amassed a collection of 735 heirloom seeds, and he’s working to save several varieties from extinction. “Much of what we grow is for propagating and preserving; on average, we are working on 30 crop varieties [at a time],” he said. “Separately, we grow around 100 seed varieties for Blackberry’s kitchen each year.” Growing up in Knoxville, Tennessee, Coykendall learned to garden from his father. He …