Hi. First thing worth mentioning is that our website is hosted by "Weebly" and their software glitch has scrambled so many of our posted photos that we just deleted about 75% of our blog posts, and as a result there is a lot of emptiness. We are trying to solve our situation and until then thank you for your understanding.
Climate change and the state of the environment is a huge concern for us.
Climate change and the state of the environment is a huge concern for us.
It's 10-15% windier than 1970 because the higher highs and lower lows are constantly trying to equalize (weather systems). We are always standing plants up only to have them blow over again, sometimes for as long as three weeks straight. When people discuss global heating (the greenhouse effect), they never mention the wind, but it's a really big problem for nurseries. Some days we just leave plants on the ground knowing that each time they blow over they get damaged a little... makes us look a little sloppy and lazy but there is a logic to the chaos. We did not have that problem 20-30-40 years ago.
It's incredibly HOTTER. I remember when we needed jackets in Newtown at night in summer because it was so cold- not all the time, but frequently enough to remember having to go in and get something on to keep warm. Not anymore. Summers used to see about five to ten days per summer over 90f. These days we see three to five days over 90f PER WEEK. It's so unbearable that some days all we do is water the plants over and over again, so hot.
Our winters are warmer, and we have earlier springs and later falls. The chickadees no longer holler all day long in the spring, just a few now and then chirp out their lonely call for love. Anyone alive decades ago knows what I'm saying. The barn swallow population that inhabited our warehouse for decades is no longer, but I still see them swooping around here in numbers dwarfed by past observations. Barn swallows are the jet fighters of the bird world, pulling 15Gs (I made that up) in their quest for insects. To watch barn swallows swoop and dart is like watching a sunset in Hawaii or the birth of your child- simply an awe-inspiring product of millions of years of evolution. When creatures like these go extinct, the world will have lost a large part of it's soul. Can you and I prevent this from happening? Probably not but to do nothing isn't an option.
There's no more squashed insects in the summer on my windshield because we have lost 75% of the insect population since 1970. Some are happy about this, but what they don't realize is that birds eat insects mainly so bird's numbers have plummeted, down by approx 45% if my memory serves me correctly. What are we supposed to do about all this, it's so depressing, and waiting for our governments to do anything meaningful about it is like watching a bank account grow at .1% interest.
All of the above is hard to ignore for outdoor workers like myself, so we take action where and when we can.
To reduce nutrient loads coming off people's lawns, we told our manufacturer in 1999 how to formulate it. I reduced the Nitrogen from 33% to 22%, eliminated Phosphorous (ten YEARS before the State Of Connecticut outlawed it in lawn food), added 4% iron, and doubled the potassium from 4% to 8%. Sounds Greek to laymen, but this change benefits the environment as well as homeowners. I no longer sell any lawn insecticides nor weedkillers, the scourge of the environment. Think about the toxicity of these products!
Manufacturers combine toxic chemicals, polluting the soil, air, and water during production. They package all this into semi-sealed bags that smell. Why do they smell? Because the chemicals work their way out of the bags into the air all around whomever handles the bags. There's no such thing as garden centers that don't reek of 2-4-D, sevin, dylox, crabgrass preventer. People load this stuff into their cars getting the microscopic dust on their hands (dermal absorption), breathing the molecules the whole ride home. During application, the chemicals not only get on the sneakers, hands, and skin of the applicators, but I'd bet a large percentage of outdoor chemicals are misapplied by homeowners in greater amounts than the label calls for.
Applicators then have to toss the empty bags into the garbage somehow, casting chemical dust all over the place, then the bags are either burned at garbage places spewing toxic chemicals into the air for all the rest of us to breathe, or buried in landfills to pollute groundwater for thousands of years. Why does all of the above take place? So people can have the "picture perfect" lawns that we all have been brainwashed to think is what being a responsible American symbolizes. I used to be a part of this way of thinking because my college education taught me to think this way. But a few years ago I was unloading bags of lawn weed killer from my truck and I almost threw up because of the strong chemical filling my lungs, and it was with great disgust on that one particular delivery that I touched my very last bag of lawn chemicals. Wanna visualize what happens to the property when these chemicals are applied (you don't)? They kill more organisms than you know- not just on the treated property, but also on their entire murderous way to the ocean starting on a molecular level with as yet unknown and undiscovered microbes, working it's way up to organisms that rely on the bottom of the food chain for existence including amphibians, fish, birds, and everything in between.
I haven't sprayed insecticides in the nursery for twenty years. You can't tell from the look of our plants because they shine with happiness with our focus shifting to proper spacing, re-potting, feeding, irrigating. I no longer sell insecticides to customers for every this and that problem because these types of products are almost criminal from an environmental standpoint. When you walk into our store, there is a lot of empty space because I haven't figured out what to replace the chemical shelves with, but at least I'm not distributing what I consider to be a large part of the problem in our environment anymore, and for that, I feel really really good. PLUS, it no longer smells like a chemical place. We walk into the store and there is no chemical smell like there used to be. Believe me, this is a very positive thing not only for our staff but also for our customers. Agricultural, lawn, and landscape chemicals probably pollute our air and water more than all the coal burning power plants in the nation combined (I made that up too but it's probably close to the truth), and kill vast amounts of nature's creatures so we can have pretty food and yards.
Not using chemicals in the landscape does not mean that your land needs to look like the Adams Family's yard. I spread clover in my lawn for feeding and weed control (type into Google "Installing a 100% organic clover lawn" and you'll see my article). Proper plant selection using native plants mostly that have no inherent pathogen problems eliminates the need for chemicals for the most part. Using a nice mix of perennials, trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals can bring life into your yard... Honey bees, bumble bees, assorted wasps, dragon flies, birds, butterflies brings additional intrigue besides the obviously awesome flowers, foliage, berries, and transitions from season to season that various plants provide visually. There is nothing in the technology world that comes close to as exciting as seeing a robin eyeing you as he/she waits to go eat the shiny red berry on an american dogwood tree in October, or watching a hummingbird devour the nectar from twenty black and blue salvia flowers one at a time, or seeing a preying mantis munch away one of those nasty yellow jackets. Don't even get me started talking about how incredible blueberry plants are... such an incredible landscape addition for humans and birds alike.
I try to seasonally put pictures in our Spring/summer/fall blogs so people can see the things that I see. It's harder to do that now since Square bought Weebly, our web host who mangled the photo handling software so pictures are constantly mixed up...makes us look absolutely 'stoopid!' So until I find a solution, new pictures blogged here will be a rare event... there are hundreds of previously posted photos, though, for you to scroll through.
As far as the nursery in general goes, we screen our own topsoil with a 90' long trommel screener, its really good soil with the biggest rocks about the size of half a pea, fluffy and easy to spread. I use this soil to make my custom garden soil which has more than 50% organic matter mixed in to feed the microbes, and a pH of 7.0, perfect for 95% of veggies. Our garden soil is so soft and pliable, you don't need a shovel to plant your veggies. These two products are better than anything that I can buy from manufacturers, so I bag our top soil and garden soil in orange bags that people bring home with them. We are so Green, we even recycle all those orange bags (we use them over and over again when people bring them back).
I also do something really unique- I mix grass seed with top soil one order at a time for spreading on lawns as a top dressing for awesome reseeding. Germination is FAST, spreading is EASY. Pictures are on our website somewhere.
I make my own mulch right here on the property, red not included. It's double ground, then dyed earth tones which blend in with your yard instead of standing out like a sore thumb. We usually have two or three or four colors to choose from including un-dyed which is not recommended because it turns the color of concrete in eight weeks or so from the UV rays- but we have it if you want it (I use it for potting soil). Because we make mulch here, its less expensive mulch than most around here. We offer it at lower prices when you come in to pick it up yourself, and even less when you pay cash that eliminates the credit card companies... but tax is applicable on every sale as usual.
Our perennial section grows each year. It's hard to get into much detail here about our perennials, but I need to say it's worth coming here to see the inventory busting at the seams almost all year long. Scroll through the blogs for an idea of what we offer, its insane. When the perennials outgrow their pots, we upsize them into bigger pots, so often you can see normal perennials in larger sizes for immediate effect. We cut them back to the soil when they start to look haggard, and they thank us by regrowing all over again as if it were spring. We feed them properly as well but we NEVER spray them with insecticides so the multitudes of pollinators do their thing here as if they were foraging in the wild.
I love trees as you can tell from our tree selection- we have tons, but COVID has destroyed inventories and availability for the past two years so until stocks are replenished, don't be surprised if you do not see normal trees available in normal quantities and normal prices.
Shrubs probably take up most of the square footage here, and a lot of what I like the best are mostly unknown cultivars of plants that are a little unusual. Don't walk past plants that don't look all flowery because some of the best deer-proof pathogen-free self-pruning shrubs look a little more subtle in their stature. Bring a fully charged phone so you can look up plants like "Chandler Blueberry plant fall foliage," or fothergilla gardenii, or "purpurea witch hazel," or native bayberry. The list goes on and on and on. I just hope that I get what I ordered last fall- last year I only got about 55% of my orders delivered to me, and this year might be worse.
Landscaping and landscape design has been next to impossible for the past two years because of covid/labor shortages, and I have to focus on being at the nursery 24/7. Hopefully this will change going forward, but until then, off-season landscaping is what I am going to need to do... it's just too crazy. Last fall (2021) when I put out the "now hiring" sign, not one person who applied was vaccinated, and I refuse to hire the unvaccinated for multitudes of reasons. I'd like our customers as well as coworkers to feel entirely comfortable (as much as that's possible during an epidemic) about walking around here. All of our staff is vaccinated and boosted.
Our nursery is located at the intersection of Route 25 and 111 in Trumbull, Connecticut. It was started in 1947 by the Wakeman family after the father returned from fighting in World War Two. The Wakeman family lived in Connecticut during the revolutionary war, and fought the British just like my ancestors did. The foundation of the original building can still be seen just inside the fence. When I see it it's a link to a part of the past I never knew, but in a strange way it's reassuring at the same time in some weird way that's hard to explain.
My father bought the nursery from the Wakemans in 1976 when I was a kid, and I worked as kids do in a slipshod kind of way for a few years, probably screwing things up more than helping. I'm sure my father wished that I would go find a job at the mall instead, but he never said anything. Eventually, I grew up, got an education at Mercersburg Academy and NCSU and returned to the nursery full time. Times were tough in the 1980's calling for seven days a week, little pay, no frills, no equipment. Everything needed to be done by hand-everything. "Agriculture" is the one word definition of "toil," and while we have equipment now that makes our work more palatable, it's an 8 day per week life in all sorts of weather. When one has worked like that their entire life, it doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, but I'm jealous of my college friends who roll in leisure time and seemingly easy lives. I've been doing it for so long though, it just seems normal to me.
It's incredibly HOTTER. I remember when we needed jackets in Newtown at night in summer because it was so cold- not all the time, but frequently enough to remember having to go in and get something on to keep warm. Not anymore. Summers used to see about five to ten days per summer over 90f. These days we see three to five days over 90f PER WEEK. It's so unbearable that some days all we do is water the plants over and over again, so hot.
Our winters are warmer, and we have earlier springs and later falls. The chickadees no longer holler all day long in the spring, just a few now and then chirp out their lonely call for love. Anyone alive decades ago knows what I'm saying. The barn swallow population that inhabited our warehouse for decades is no longer, but I still see them swooping around here in numbers dwarfed by past observations. Barn swallows are the jet fighters of the bird world, pulling 15Gs (I made that up) in their quest for insects. To watch barn swallows swoop and dart is like watching a sunset in Hawaii or the birth of your child- simply an awe-inspiring product of millions of years of evolution. When creatures like these go extinct, the world will have lost a large part of it's soul. Can you and I prevent this from happening? Probably not but to do nothing isn't an option.
There's no more squashed insects in the summer on my windshield because we have lost 75% of the insect population since 1970. Some are happy about this, but what they don't realize is that birds eat insects mainly so bird's numbers have plummeted, down by approx 45% if my memory serves me correctly. What are we supposed to do about all this, it's so depressing, and waiting for our governments to do anything meaningful about it is like watching a bank account grow at .1% interest.
All of the above is hard to ignore for outdoor workers like myself, so we take action where and when we can.
To reduce nutrient loads coming off people's lawns, we told our manufacturer in 1999 how to formulate it. I reduced the Nitrogen from 33% to 22%, eliminated Phosphorous (ten YEARS before the State Of Connecticut outlawed it in lawn food), added 4% iron, and doubled the potassium from 4% to 8%. Sounds Greek to laymen, but this change benefits the environment as well as homeowners. I no longer sell any lawn insecticides nor weedkillers, the scourge of the environment. Think about the toxicity of these products!
Manufacturers combine toxic chemicals, polluting the soil, air, and water during production. They package all this into semi-sealed bags that smell. Why do they smell? Because the chemicals work their way out of the bags into the air all around whomever handles the bags. There's no such thing as garden centers that don't reek of 2-4-D, sevin, dylox, crabgrass preventer. People load this stuff into their cars getting the microscopic dust on their hands (dermal absorption), breathing the molecules the whole ride home. During application, the chemicals not only get on the sneakers, hands, and skin of the applicators, but I'd bet a large percentage of outdoor chemicals are misapplied by homeowners in greater amounts than the label calls for.
Applicators then have to toss the empty bags into the garbage somehow, casting chemical dust all over the place, then the bags are either burned at garbage places spewing toxic chemicals into the air for all the rest of us to breathe, or buried in landfills to pollute groundwater for thousands of years. Why does all of the above take place? So people can have the "picture perfect" lawns that we all have been brainwashed to think is what being a responsible American symbolizes. I used to be a part of this way of thinking because my college education taught me to think this way. But a few years ago I was unloading bags of lawn weed killer from my truck and I almost threw up because of the strong chemical filling my lungs, and it was with great disgust on that one particular delivery that I touched my very last bag of lawn chemicals. Wanna visualize what happens to the property when these chemicals are applied (you don't)? They kill more organisms than you know- not just on the treated property, but also on their entire murderous way to the ocean starting on a molecular level with as yet unknown and undiscovered microbes, working it's way up to organisms that rely on the bottom of the food chain for existence including amphibians, fish, birds, and everything in between.
I haven't sprayed insecticides in the nursery for twenty years. You can't tell from the look of our plants because they shine with happiness with our focus shifting to proper spacing, re-potting, feeding, irrigating. I no longer sell insecticides to customers for every this and that problem because these types of products are almost criminal from an environmental standpoint. When you walk into our store, there is a lot of empty space because I haven't figured out what to replace the chemical shelves with, but at least I'm not distributing what I consider to be a large part of the problem in our environment anymore, and for that, I feel really really good. PLUS, it no longer smells like a chemical place. We walk into the store and there is no chemical smell like there used to be. Believe me, this is a very positive thing not only for our staff but also for our customers. Agricultural, lawn, and landscape chemicals probably pollute our air and water more than all the coal burning power plants in the nation combined (I made that up too but it's probably close to the truth), and kill vast amounts of nature's creatures so we can have pretty food and yards.
Not using chemicals in the landscape does not mean that your land needs to look like the Adams Family's yard. I spread clover in my lawn for feeding and weed control (type into Google "Installing a 100% organic clover lawn" and you'll see my article). Proper plant selection using native plants mostly that have no inherent pathogen problems eliminates the need for chemicals for the most part. Using a nice mix of perennials, trees, shrubs, perennials, and annuals can bring life into your yard... Honey bees, bumble bees, assorted wasps, dragon flies, birds, butterflies brings additional intrigue besides the obviously awesome flowers, foliage, berries, and transitions from season to season that various plants provide visually. There is nothing in the technology world that comes close to as exciting as seeing a robin eyeing you as he/she waits to go eat the shiny red berry on an american dogwood tree in October, or watching a hummingbird devour the nectar from twenty black and blue salvia flowers one at a time, or seeing a preying mantis munch away one of those nasty yellow jackets. Don't even get me started talking about how incredible blueberry plants are... such an incredible landscape addition for humans and birds alike.
I try to seasonally put pictures in our Spring/summer/fall blogs so people can see the things that I see. It's harder to do that now since Square bought Weebly, our web host who mangled the photo handling software so pictures are constantly mixed up...makes us look absolutely 'stoopid!' So until I find a solution, new pictures blogged here will be a rare event... there are hundreds of previously posted photos, though, for you to scroll through.
As far as the nursery in general goes, we screen our own topsoil with a 90' long trommel screener, its really good soil with the biggest rocks about the size of half a pea, fluffy and easy to spread. I use this soil to make my custom garden soil which has more than 50% organic matter mixed in to feed the microbes, and a pH of 7.0, perfect for 95% of veggies. Our garden soil is so soft and pliable, you don't need a shovel to plant your veggies. These two products are better than anything that I can buy from manufacturers, so I bag our top soil and garden soil in orange bags that people bring home with them. We are so Green, we even recycle all those orange bags (we use them over and over again when people bring them back).
I also do something really unique- I mix grass seed with top soil one order at a time for spreading on lawns as a top dressing for awesome reseeding. Germination is FAST, spreading is EASY. Pictures are on our website somewhere.
I make my own mulch right here on the property, red not included. It's double ground, then dyed earth tones which blend in with your yard instead of standing out like a sore thumb. We usually have two or three or four colors to choose from including un-dyed which is not recommended because it turns the color of concrete in eight weeks or so from the UV rays- but we have it if you want it (I use it for potting soil). Because we make mulch here, its less expensive mulch than most around here. We offer it at lower prices when you come in to pick it up yourself, and even less when you pay cash that eliminates the credit card companies... but tax is applicable on every sale as usual.
Our perennial section grows each year. It's hard to get into much detail here about our perennials, but I need to say it's worth coming here to see the inventory busting at the seams almost all year long. Scroll through the blogs for an idea of what we offer, its insane. When the perennials outgrow their pots, we upsize them into bigger pots, so often you can see normal perennials in larger sizes for immediate effect. We cut them back to the soil when they start to look haggard, and they thank us by regrowing all over again as if it were spring. We feed them properly as well but we NEVER spray them with insecticides so the multitudes of pollinators do their thing here as if they were foraging in the wild.
I love trees as you can tell from our tree selection- we have tons, but COVID has destroyed inventories and availability for the past two years so until stocks are replenished, don't be surprised if you do not see normal trees available in normal quantities and normal prices.
Shrubs probably take up most of the square footage here, and a lot of what I like the best are mostly unknown cultivars of plants that are a little unusual. Don't walk past plants that don't look all flowery because some of the best deer-proof pathogen-free self-pruning shrubs look a little more subtle in their stature. Bring a fully charged phone so you can look up plants like "Chandler Blueberry plant fall foliage," or fothergilla gardenii, or "purpurea witch hazel," or native bayberry. The list goes on and on and on. I just hope that I get what I ordered last fall- last year I only got about 55% of my orders delivered to me, and this year might be worse.
Landscaping and landscape design has been next to impossible for the past two years because of covid/labor shortages, and I have to focus on being at the nursery 24/7. Hopefully this will change going forward, but until then, off-season landscaping is what I am going to need to do... it's just too crazy. Last fall (2021) when I put out the "now hiring" sign, not one person who applied was vaccinated, and I refuse to hire the unvaccinated for multitudes of reasons. I'd like our customers as well as coworkers to feel entirely comfortable (as much as that's possible during an epidemic) about walking around here. All of our staff is vaccinated and boosted.
Our nursery is located at the intersection of Route 25 and 111 in Trumbull, Connecticut. It was started in 1947 by the Wakeman family after the father returned from fighting in World War Two. The Wakeman family lived in Connecticut during the revolutionary war, and fought the British just like my ancestors did. The foundation of the original building can still be seen just inside the fence. When I see it it's a link to a part of the past I never knew, but in a strange way it's reassuring at the same time in some weird way that's hard to explain.
My father bought the nursery from the Wakemans in 1976 when I was a kid, and I worked as kids do in a slipshod kind of way for a few years, probably screwing things up more than helping. I'm sure my father wished that I would go find a job at the mall instead, but he never said anything. Eventually, I grew up, got an education at Mercersburg Academy and NCSU and returned to the nursery full time. Times were tough in the 1980's calling for seven days a week, little pay, no frills, no equipment. Everything needed to be done by hand-everything. "Agriculture" is the one word definition of "toil," and while we have equipment now that makes our work more palatable, it's an 8 day per week life in all sorts of weather. When one has worked like that their entire life, it doesn't seem too out of the ordinary, but I'm jealous of my college friends who roll in leisure time and seemingly easy lives. I've been doing it for so long though, it just seems normal to me.
David and Kyle Benjamin
PeeTee, our Trumbull Carolina Dog
Best of breed, best of show at the nursery dog show, a fictional event.
A sleeping Carolina dog keeping my kid comfy. She's a great store greeter
That's Peetee dog above frolicking on my irrigation/ice hockey pond a month or so after she smiled her way into our car.
When Lucy died (15 yo yellow lab) I asked two veterinary friends what kind of dog to get for long life and few medical problems...1/12,000 of a second later both replied “GET A MUTT," so mutt-hunting I went, and now there is a mangy critter running freely on our property- brings life and interest to our nursery. She is really cool looking. Many people asked what kind of dog she was so I took her to one of the vet-friends who took three gallons of blood with test coming back “basset hound!” Word... do not waste good money on those tests. They are all incomplete, Your dog is a dog, period, and which kind of dog they are is a good question yet irrelevant. When I was done shredding the $200 test results I found on the internet pictures of “American Dingo...” looked just like her-almost, so that’s what I say she is. She doesn't care what she is, and neither do I, all I know is this: from now on I will never again get a purebred... MUTTs ROCK!
When Lucy died (15 yo yellow lab) I asked two veterinary friends what kind of dog to get for long life and few medical problems...1/12,000 of a second later both replied “GET A MUTT," so mutt-hunting I went, and now there is a mangy critter running freely on our property- brings life and interest to our nursery. She is really cool looking. Many people asked what kind of dog she was so I took her to one of the vet-friends who took three gallons of blood with test coming back “basset hound!” Word... do not waste good money on those tests. They are all incomplete, Your dog is a dog, period, and which kind of dog they are is a good question yet irrelevant. When I was done shredding the $200 test results I found on the internet pictures of “American Dingo...” looked just like her-almost, so that’s what I say she is. She doesn't care what she is, and neither do I, all I know is this: from now on I will never again get a purebred... MUTTs ROCK!
She is named after the little Rascals dog, Petey. She is a rescue dog and we believe most of her genes are from the native Carolina dog/American dingo, a breed discovered surviving in packs in the Deep South woods. DNA test results showed 100% Siberian strains. This led scientists to surmise that this breed accompanied arctic wanderers into America when the glaciers melted 15,000 years ago. She is not purebred Carolina Dog," she is a mongrel, with spoonfuls of other breeds sprinkled in here and there. Her mom liked to party on the streets of some Virginia city and was picked up by the "Tails of Courage" rescue located in Danbury.
When I called Tails of Courage, I had reserved a Black Lab named Amy, said I'd be there in an hour, and by the time I got there they had sold Amy (was I PISSED?). My kid asked if he could pick up the squirming half breed- the only puppy left in the joint, and because I did not know the "puppy-pick-up-rule," I said yes. For those of you who do not know the "puppy-pick-up-rule," it states the following, and I quote directly from Wikipedia:
"Never ever allow a child to pick up, smell, hold, caress, or otherwise google and fawn over an unclaimed puppy less than eight weeks of age unless you are willing to own said dog for the rest of it's life, which could be as long as 12-16 years." It's a thing. Really. If you don't believe me, look it up for yourself.
If you are looking for an excellent companion and family member, try a rescue dog instead of buying a pure breed. It's hard to say she is the best dog I've ever had without hurting the memory of all the others (Heidi, Fritzie, Rusty, Hilda, Beedie, Hazel, Lucy), but that sentence has almost escaped my lips on a couple of occasions (sorry guys!).
When I called Tails of Courage, I had reserved a Black Lab named Amy, said I'd be there in an hour, and by the time I got there they had sold Amy (was I PISSED?). My kid asked if he could pick up the squirming half breed- the only puppy left in the joint, and because I did not know the "puppy-pick-up-rule," I said yes. For those of you who do not know the "puppy-pick-up-rule," it states the following, and I quote directly from Wikipedia:
"Never ever allow a child to pick up, smell, hold, caress, or otherwise google and fawn over an unclaimed puppy less than eight weeks of age unless you are willing to own said dog for the rest of it's life, which could be as long as 12-16 years." It's a thing. Really. If you don't believe me, look it up for yourself.
If you are looking for an excellent companion and family member, try a rescue dog instead of buying a pure breed. It's hard to say she is the best dog I've ever had without hurting the memory of all the others (Heidi, Fritzie, Rusty, Hilda, Beedie, Hazel, Lucy), but that sentence has almost escaped my lips on a couple of occasions (sorry guys!).
As for my family history, rumors persisted in our family for years that my ancestors were among the first settlers in Newtown Connecticut, confirmed Winter 2018. The Sherman family (Samuel) bought one square mile from the Indians, and I’m sure he ripped the Indians off just like everyone else did.
“Hey, squeaking crow, I’ll trade you this pewter belt buckle for one square mile of virgin forest...” Squeaking Crow: “No, two pewter belt buckles.”
“Absolutely not, Squeaking Crow! One pewter belt buckle, take it or leave it!"
"ohhhhh kkkkkk."
The Benjamin family lived in Stratford Ct. in 1632 and the Shermans also. The Benjamins shuffled off to Boston decades later and the Shermans were one of the first families to settle in Newtown Ct. and petition the "governor" for permission to charter the new colony. They were one of the seventeen founding families and I feel they had the very best property, right at the top of the hill next to the famous flagpole (currently located right smack in the center of the Rt. 25-BIZARRE!). Occasionally, unaware motorists drive right smack into the pole ending their lives in a gruesome way.
What I find most uncanny is that neither of my parents were born in Connecticut. Dad is from upper state NY (Potsdam), and Mom was born in New Mexico. They moved to Newtown in 1976 and never knew the details of our family history while living here... what are the chances of that happening?
Additionally, I find it extremely uncanny that I have an agricultural business (that's what my ancestors did) 400 years later halfway between both towns when nobody from either family has lived here for hundreds of years! Because the nursery is on the road that connects both towns, I am sure that the Shermans rode their horses past this property on their way to Newtown. Also, because there could not have been too many people in Stratford Ct in the 1630s, I am absolutely positive that the two families knew each other although I have no way to prove it. I wondered if they liked each other, were friends, or cared not for each other’s company...
"Hey Ebeneezer, top of the day to you!"
“Go to hell, Sherman! Go straight to hell, and take that half-breed sway-backed horse you rode into town on with you!"
Check out your family history if you haven't already. I bet history has a few surprises waiting for you.
Turns out that another ancestor of mine is "Thomas Knowleton," leader of the revolutionary army's defense against the British at the battle of Bunker Hill (actually Breed's Hill) who worked directly for George Washington then died during the Battle Of Harlem as the United State's first Army Ranger and first Intelligence officer. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Harlem somewhere under a skyscraper I bet. I can tell you this in no uncertain terms though:
If Thomas Knowleton, John Benjamin, or Samuel Sherman were to somehow find out what is happening in Washington D.C right now, I'm sure they would return from the dead and kick some ass. Thomas Knowleton did not die fighting foreign enemies to create an honest democracy so heathens could destroy it in morally and politically corrupt ways.
“Hey, squeaking crow, I’ll trade you this pewter belt buckle for one square mile of virgin forest...” Squeaking Crow: “No, two pewter belt buckles.”
“Absolutely not, Squeaking Crow! One pewter belt buckle, take it or leave it!"
"ohhhhh kkkkkk."
The Benjamin family lived in Stratford Ct. in 1632 and the Shermans also. The Benjamins shuffled off to Boston decades later and the Shermans were one of the first families to settle in Newtown Ct. and petition the "governor" for permission to charter the new colony. They were one of the seventeen founding families and I feel they had the very best property, right at the top of the hill next to the famous flagpole (currently located right smack in the center of the Rt. 25-BIZARRE!). Occasionally, unaware motorists drive right smack into the pole ending their lives in a gruesome way.
What I find most uncanny is that neither of my parents were born in Connecticut. Dad is from upper state NY (Potsdam), and Mom was born in New Mexico. They moved to Newtown in 1976 and never knew the details of our family history while living here... what are the chances of that happening?
Additionally, I find it extremely uncanny that I have an agricultural business (that's what my ancestors did) 400 years later halfway between both towns when nobody from either family has lived here for hundreds of years! Because the nursery is on the road that connects both towns, I am sure that the Shermans rode their horses past this property on their way to Newtown. Also, because there could not have been too many people in Stratford Ct in the 1630s, I am absolutely positive that the two families knew each other although I have no way to prove it. I wondered if they liked each other, were friends, or cared not for each other’s company...
"Hey Ebeneezer, top of the day to you!"
“Go to hell, Sherman! Go straight to hell, and take that half-breed sway-backed horse you rode into town on with you!"
Check out your family history if you haven't already. I bet history has a few surprises waiting for you.
Turns out that another ancestor of mine is "Thomas Knowleton," leader of the revolutionary army's defense against the British at the battle of Bunker Hill (actually Breed's Hill) who worked directly for George Washington then died during the Battle Of Harlem as the United State's first Army Ranger and first Intelligence officer. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Harlem somewhere under a skyscraper I bet. I can tell you this in no uncertain terms though:
If Thomas Knowleton, John Benjamin, or Samuel Sherman were to somehow find out what is happening in Washington D.C right now, I'm sure they would return from the dead and kick some ass. Thomas Knowleton did not die fighting foreign enemies to create an honest democracy so heathens could destroy it in morally and politically corrupt ways.
This house is across the street from the flagpole and the main church in Newtown. It was built by the Shermans and lived in for generations. The rear of this house was occupied by slaves. It is unclear if the slaves were Indians or "African Americans," but it certainly is a stain on my visualizations of my family's history.
Stan Benjamin on left died November 10, 2020. Sarah lives in Southport, NC, They toiled for three decades at the nursery. Then there's me, at the end of my fifth decade working at the nursery.
Sarah and Stan Benjamin bought the nursery from John and Charlie Wakeman with everyone chipping in to make the nursery operate smoothly. Stan ran the garden center and the office, Sarah ran the flower shop, and I ran the nursery/ landscaping. Sarah Benjamin worked to please people with anything and everything they needed help with, an inspiration to all in the customer service business.
Lucy. One of the most loyal and loving dogs that ever roamed the earth. She came to work every single day and trotted alongside the machines all day long till she was ten, then after that till noon until she was twelve. Then after that she would spend most of the day inside or lying in the sun welcoming people and wagging. We almost always tear up when looking at old pictures.
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Lucy, I will ALWAYS love you!!!
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