Over the past 30 years, Waimea has grown from a sleepy Hawaii island cow town into a vibrant, sophisticated community offering concerts, plays, fine art and gourmet cuisine. During that span, Barbara Campbell and her husband, Charlie, have preserved the town’s country soul at their bed and breakfast, Waimea Gardens, which provides guests with homey touches such as flower-filled window boxes, private gardens and a swing dangling from the boughs of a venerable jacaranda tree.

With her background as the director of sales and marketing for the now-shuttered but still revered Kona Village Resort for 23 years, it seems operating a B&B would’ve been a natural move for Campbell, but that wasn’t on her or Charlie’s radar at first.

It all began in 1982, when their daughter, Susan, got married. The reception for 200 was held at their Waimea home, where they had renovated and expanded the original homesteaders’ weather-beaten bakehouse, dating back to the late 1880s, as Susan’s honeymoon suite. Guests were welcome to browse inside.

“When Susan and her husband moved out of the cottage, Charlie and I began to get phone calls,” Campbell said. “Friends would say, ‘My mother is coming for a visit, my cousin is coming — can he or she stay in your cottage?’ For over a year, we let many people stay there gratis, then we realized we were on to something: Why not open a bed and breakfast and attract paying guests?”

They started Waimea Gardens in the mid-1980s. At the time, Campbell was still working at Kona Village and Charlie, a veterinarian, was busy with his practice, but having just one unit (which they dubbed the Kohala Cottage after its glorious views of Kohala Volcano) and the help of a housekeeper made the new venture manageable.

Campbell retired in 1989, the same year she and Susan founded Hawaii’s Best Bed and Breakfasts. “I’m from New England, where beautiful little guest houses are common, but in Hawaii back then, there were only huge hotels,” Campbell said. “We ran Hawaii’s Best Bed and Breakfasts for 13 years; at its peak, we represented 135 boutique accommodations statewide. Travel agents knew that if we had picked a property, it was wonderful.”

Holding fast to strict standards, Campbell, Susan and other staff members personally inspected every property in the collection as well as dozens of hopefuls that didn’t make the cut.

“It takes experience to learn what creates the perfect balance of attention and privacy that guests are looking for, and, of course, they are our best teachers,” Campbell said. “A B&B doesn’t have to be big, new or luxurious, but it should be clean and charming in some unique way. When guests walk in, they should feel comfortable and relaxed. They should think, ‘Aaaah … this is just like home.’”

That’s what she and Charlie have created at Waimea Gardens. In 1992, they opened the Waimea Cottage next to the Kohala Cottage. The room their son and his band had used for practices when they were in high school was transformed into the Garden Studio in 2001, and the former office and call center for Hawaii’s Best Bed and Breakfasts became the Sweet Ohana in 2013.

Campbell’s mother was an interior designer, and all four units display lovely pieces from her collection of antiques. Thoughtful gestures include puzzles, games, a cooler, beach chairs and towels, Hawaii island guidebooks, DVD movies and CDs, from classical to New Age to slack key.

In addition, the Kohala Cottage features a spacious, fully equipped kitchen and a parlor at the entrance that history buffs will especially appreciate: It was the 19th-century bakehouse that the Campbells decided to retain.

Those who book the Waimea Cottage enjoy the use of a wood-burning fireplace and a private brick patio with teak rocking chairs, while the Garden Studio offers a fern-filled courtyard and a shower that opens to a cozy deck. Accommodating up to four, the Sweet Ohana provides a full bath with a tub/shower as well as an outdoor shower in an enclosed garden whose ceiling is the sky.

Guests are welcome to stroll around the pretty, peaceful grounds where pheasants, partridges, wild turkeys and the Campbells’ egg-laying hens can often can be seen strutting amid flourishing greenery.

Waimea Gardens’ team is small but efficient: Campbell handles reservations and accounting, Charlie is the maintenance man and Heather Kaula, who they say is the key to smooth operations, is their longtime housekeeper.

“We like to say you can have a first-class resort experience at our upcountry bed and breakfast,” Campbell said. “Our goal is to not only meet guests’ expectations but to exceed them. We love what we’re doing; it gives us purpose. We wake up in the morning and think, ‘Who’s checking in today?’ It’s hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun!”

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.