We are going to be hiring people to make deliveries and do nursery work.

Everything that we do at the nursery is physical work at times, and applicants need to be able to lift relatively heavy objects and work in all sorts of weather.

It’s difficult to describe the entirety of the work here so I won’t but clean driving records are important for those working in the nursery.

Please come in in person- don’t contact us through this website, please because I do not check it often. It is better to call the store to see if we are open, and come in.

There isn’t much to do in the winter with plants so we move on to other preparations for spring...like making mulch.

The first mulch particles fall off the conveyor onto the ground

It’s not long before a steaming pile forms under the conveyor.

A couple-a hours later, a decent pile grows.

The next morning, the mound steams in the cold early morning air.

The pile steams from bacterial action as microbes eat the carbon in the wood. Nature’s recycling byproducts easily seen. It reminded me of what California looked like last summer when the forests burned from global warming heat, droughts, and hurricane-force winds.

The sun chased the frost down into the mulch valleys.

The nursery dog seems to have conquered the world.

By the end of the day, we had produced enough mulch to get us through the year, and now we are on to the next project.

The state of Connecticut is PATHETIC with regards to providing for its citizens. Private industry has stepped in to fill the gap. HOORAY for griffin Hospital!!!

Boy was I glad to see Griffin hospital do something for us. I will always view Griffin Hospital in the most favorable light.

The military was there helping.

The line was long but it moved FAST!!! I was ready for a three/four/five hour wait, yet it was just under an hour.

Dozens of well-protected friendly and polite workers hustling for the greater good.

Teentsy q-tip inserted 2” up into noses. Not 4” like the old days. Such a great unexpectedly easy experience.

Sign by road- we are coming back, promise!

Monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico. We overwinter away from the nursery. Turns out EVERY TIME you buy avocados from Stop and Shop, Trader Joe’s, and BIG Y, you are creating demand that results DIRECTLY in the extermination of monarch butterflies in Mexico. Limes too. Check out the blog in my ENVIRONMENT section of this website. None of those companies claimed to know (BULLSHIT) anything about it.

Maybe the days of playing hockey on our beautiful pond are over, with global warming giving our planet the warmest winter temps EVER in Antarctica and Europe. Warmest January on record. We are DOOMED.

Winter flowering native witch hazel flowering on time!

Arnold’s promise witch hazel flowering yesterday- a reliable friend indeed.

Parasol-shaped canopy develops slowly on witch hazel, topping out at ~12’

We screen our own topsoil. It’s covered so that in the spring it’s soft and fluffy and ready for you to spread easily. Zero rocks. That piece of plastic cost us $550- we spare no expense in order to sell the very best to you. I call our topsoil “homeowner soil,” because it’s so easy to shovel around. Perfect pH of 7.0.

Hoopsi blue spruce USED to be my favorite evergreen tree. Not anymore. The “needle cast” fungus that used to be a rarity is now commonplace for some reason. These unsaleable trees used to sell for $800 and up. They are worthless now.

Bald cypress (taxodium disticum) on the other side of the pond. Native from Florida to Maine. Thrives in swamps and desert-like crappy soils. It’s the OLDEST living native tree on the east coast living over 3,000 years. Second longest living tree is nyssa sylvatica at ~700 years, a fact discovered just last summer in the swamps of eastern North Carolina. I planted this tree in 1985 from a two gallon pot. It’s beautiful in the fall when it turns rusty-red and reflects off the dark water of our pond early in the autumnal mornings.

Dawn redwood (metasequoia glyptostroboides) I planted the very same day. They grow twice as fast as bald cypress and beautiful yet just not as beautiful as bald cypress in the fall.

Avondale redbud flower buds getting ready to flower in April. There is no tree that flowers more profusely than Avondale redbud.

Food applied on all our evergreen trees in December. Trees need food in the winter too- otherwise, they turn yellowish-green and are hard if not impossible to sell in the spring.

Winter gives us (me) time to surf in winter.

Incredible bamboo, yellow all year, takes on a classic brown look all winter.

Plants inside our hoop house sleeping till spring.

I heat my entire house with wood, can’t help it. It’s not for everyone, but heating with wood is for me, and I’m of the opinion that once one heats with wood, there is no going back to oil or gas. The heat has a source. The cat and dog lie in front of the stove, life-giving flames visible through the glass.

Im lucky to have this cool salt box with room for six or seven carefully stacked cords under the roof. I bring the wood home in July when it’s still green and recently split. As it seasons, we can smell the white oak terpenes drifting through and around the house. There is something really organic about it. It’s hard work, too, stacking wood. Actually, EVERYTHING about heating with wood is hard, except for the fact that my gas bill is about $45/month all year long.

My son and I brought these cages home yesterday knowing that what was left was insufficient to last through the rest of the winter. We got something accomplished yesterday at least. The dog Peetee wasn’t much help as much as she wanted to be involved, dodging tossed pieces with each and every throw.

The birch trees out front look awesome at night with their ten watt LED light bulbs shining up through the canopy. Not many trees can boast better looking night time than daytime appearances. Himalayan birch trees- our signature tree.

Plastic plastic plastic! It’s everywhere!

Peetee had to remind me to bring my canvas bag. I’ve been good this month using these instead of those horrible bags. When are they gonna be outlawed?

Removed protective plastic from our hoop house to find lots of happy plants looking for a home like pound dogs.

Lots of care goes into overwintering valuable shrubs and trees. One customer asked what kind of discount he could get on “left over stock...”

My reply was “none, these plants are about to get repriced because they are a year older.”

Its still cold, Peetee wants to stay home. NO.

Sometimes they look better in the spring than they did in the fall. We repot most of everything into bigger containers. It’s a lotta work!!!

Hundreds of BLUEBERRIES for planting now!

Alberta dwarf spruce look great

Norway spruce huge and medium look healthy, especially after consolidating.

Nursery work takes a LOT of time, effort, and skill. But you get to work outside.