About

As a child, I was completely captivated by the flowers in the sloped rock garden, in our back yard. We also had a huge, abandoned railway “cut”, that stretched from the back of our house to the parkway, quite far away, which became our “wild playground”! As the oldest, in the neighborhood, I took it upon myself to protect the little creatures “Up in the Back” & the minnows & crayfish, across the street, in The Hutchinson “River” aka, “The Brook”. My favorite colors were moss green & brown. I was very earthy!

My best friend & I would build terrariums, the first, decorated for Thanksgiving, peopled by my mom’s candles, depicting a Pilgrim girl & boy & a turkey. We agreed we’d share a “Pet & Plant” shop when we grew up.

After college, I joined a “spiritual commune” & was mentored by an older woman, who seemed to like plants better than most people. I guess she must have seen “something” in me! I will always be grateful to Roberta for sharing her wisdom with me.

After my first son was born, we left & finally bought a house of our own.I started my first vegetable garden & cared for the plants that were on the property, adding some of my own. I started potting up plants, which I put out by my front gate, so passers-by might stop & buy one. That was in the mid-1970s & the start of it all!

About 10 years later, I was in a new relationship & a new home, on a very old property. The house was a salt box, built in 1796. It had more recently been a small farm, on the Central Mass./N.H. border. At that time I was the manager/trainer & “interior-scaper”, for “Jim’s Greenery”, a business which designed, installed & cared for interior plants, in businesses, factories, hospitals, restaurants, etc., all around North-Central Mass.

I started my first, small nursery in 1991, with plants from the old farm & some of my own. I still have a collection of antique plants, from the “Old Sunbury Place”, including the most fragrant, pink rambling roses, “Mutable” tulips, which start completely yellow & become totally red, & the most delicious raspberries I’ve ever tasted! They are all available at “Native Plants, etc.”

I moved that entire business, in a moving van, to Greensboro Bend, Vt., in the “Northeast Kingdom”, in 2000 & I started all over again. Due to a fall off a 12’ ladder, my husband was unable to continue making fine furniture & cabinetry, for the customers we had back in Mass. Our bright future was overshadowed & I had to open the nursery & add a gardening service to keep us afloat, seasonally, in a brand new place.

By the generosity of my first customers, word of mouth & self-promotion, I had become pretty successful, so by 2003, my sister Carol & her daughter, Erin, moved up from Westchester, (NY), with her entire nursery, in the back of her van.

Her son had started selling contracts for indoor worm farming to farmers in Pa., so his Mom & I decided to give it a go. We designed & built large, wooden worm bins, which “breathed”, making them greatly superior to the soggy, plastic worm bins on the market. We built the “Mighty Wall of Worms”, 24 worm bins, on drawer slides, (for easy access), on the ground floor, below the furniture & cabinet shop.

Suddenly, we had become “The Wacky Worm Sisters of Vermont” & spent the next 4 years, speaking & doing demos, at Flower Shows, Garden Clubs, schools & for anyone who wanted to hear about this new idea. We even became the first lecturers at the brand-new, “Vermont Master Composters” class.

We built & sold many worms bins & worms, in New England, while at the same time running the combined nurseries & taking care of our numerous area gardening clients. By 2007, we agreed that it was time for us to follow our own paths. I decided to retire after a few years.

So, what was I thinking when, in 2021, I decided to open a new nursery?

Last year, after a long hiatus, I ventured back onto the scene of our 2 local Farmers’ Markets. I had forgotten how heavy & cumbersome the old, pop-up tent was, esp. without a partner to help. Plus, in the vehicle, it’s under all the plants & tables & signage, etc. Worse, all the plants, etc., all come out first, so there’s no place to set-up the tent!!! Then there’s packing up & unloading when you get home! That’s when I had the fabulous idea of everyone coming to me, instead!

After gardening professionally for over 50 years, maybe someone should have talked me out of it, but I’m doing this because I want to share my love for & the importance of, our closest gardening companions. I am so fortunate to live on 4 acres of woods, wetland, open, sunny areas & gardens full of glacial boulders, dragged downhill, from our beautiful Lake Caspian, which was formed by the glacier, during the last Ice Age.

When we bought it, in 1996, it was the house’s 100th birthday! On this property, which had been abandoned for 7 years, I started finding trillium, bloodroot, trout lilies, red & yellow native columbines, cranberry viburnum & my favorite native understory tree, Pagoda Dogwood. It was a good size, when we first met & 26 years later, she is bigger & more lovely, in every season. The wet area boasted marshmallows, red-twig dogwood, myriad aster & goldenrod varieties, odd, little evergreens & all kinds of warblers, in summer. I’ve had fun, over the years, adding a buttonbush, Indian rhubarb, cattails, (by waving seed heads in the air), which I collected seeds from while on walks with my dog, Ripley.

Last year, I collected seeds of over 20 varieties, just from my land. I also bought seed packets, from Wild Seed Project, a non-profit in Maine. Amazingly, after having no luck for 2 winters, waiting for native seedlings that didn’t sprout, this spring I had over 80% success from 30 varieties of seeds, even ones collected from shrubs & trees. I think patience had something to do with it! It has also given me a good number of native species which were not here already.

Over many years, I have gathered collections of non-native, but unusual plants, which I will be sharing, as time & divisions allow.

I also have a vast collection of interior plants, which came from my years in “indoor plant care”. Some I’ve had for for close to 40 years, including a lemon tree, lime tree, a ficus tree I braided soon after the cuttings had grown roots, & a very large, ponytail palm. All were tiny when they first joined the menagerie. I have interior plants, foliage, fragrant & flowering, for every location & many which like to vacation, outside, for the summer.

Now to get down to it;

I’m giddy, like a kid in a candy store, every time I meet a new native plant, for the first time. I always feel utterly blessed & joyful.

The same with native insects, pollinators & butterflies & birds. They are all my friends! That’s what I want to share & spark in my visitors, so they can have that experience, too! I’d love to meet you, show you around, share stories & answer questions!

I know I have a reputation for enthusiasm, laughing & having fun with everyone I meet.

You are warmly invited to come for a visit!!!!

Thanks, Lynette