MEMBER PROFIL 



MAPLE LEAF GARDENS 

 A Concern for Quality 



BOTH ERIK AND JOAN Pierce grew up in the 

 mid-west. They met at Ohio State, where Erik 

 was a business administration major. He worked 

 awhile in the electronics field, but wanted to go into 

 business for himself and wanted it to be a greenhouse. 



The patterns of thinking honed by these experiences 

 inform their decision-making. A location was chosen 

 by narrowing the options in a logical manner. They 

 both liked New England. At the time (1976), New 

 Hampshire, of the six states, seemed most prosperous. 

 Concord was a population center without a lot of re- 

 tail growers nearby. 



A 33-acre piece of land — a working farm with 

 house and barn, vegetable fields, farm stand, and small 

 greenhouse — on Clinton Street seemed the best of the 

 properties available. "It was a good choice:" with 

 churches, schools, playing fields, a nature preserve all 

 around them, the street is still rural in character. 



That first summer — the summer of '77, the retiring 

 farmer planted a crop for them before he left. And 

 they put up their first greenhouse — a 30'x60' double- 

 poly — and went into business full-time. 



For the first few years, Joan admits, it was a 

 struggle ("lots of macaroni suppers"), finding a balance 

 between what worked for them and what brought the 

 customers back. 



TODAY THERE ARE three houses. Their designs 

 evolved out of use over time; all were constructed by 

 Erik himself. The largest is U-shaped, with two 

 wings — 30'x60' (the main retail area) and 

 20'xl00'(pui: up last fall and replacing the greenhouse 

 that came with the farm) — connected by a I6'x72' 

 crosspiece. Between the retail area and the crosspiece 

 is a 30'x40' space for work and storage. The cross- 

 piece and second greenhouse are used for seed germi- 

 nation. From this area, beginning in late winter, material 

 moves outward, gradually filling the rest of the range. 



The frame is wood, pressure-treated in the pieces 

 that touch the ground; ribs are four feet apart, pur- 

 loins are bolted onto the ribs; DynaGlas — a polycar- 

 bonate — is fastened to the purloins. Erik sees this as 

 fairly permanent, eliminating the time and expense 



needed for maintenance and replacement. The struc- 

 tures are modified quonset-style houses: Erik created 

 six-foot-high straight sides to prevent snow build-up; 

 the roof is still curved — the DynaGlas has followed 

 the curve without shattering. 



Two sets of wall shutters, as well as the overhead 

 doors, at the front of the retail section work with five 

 fans set into the rear wall of the crosspiece to cool the 

 entire unit. 



A second house is a 36'x56' wooden frame covered 

 with DynaGlas. Hinged panels on all four walls open 

 outward, cooling and creating cross ventilation. "For 

 some reason — I don't know why — seed geraniums 

 grow beautifully here." So this is the house's main 

 crop, set in four-inch spacer trays. This house is also 

 open to customers. Hangers are also grown here. 



The floor of the main retail house is cement; all 

 others are crushed stone. Some benches are peninsular- 

 style; others are simply spaced evenly down the length 

 of a house; all are expanded metal on wood frame 

 bolted onto wooden legs. The relatively small spaces — 

 filled with textures of wood and stone — are orderly 

 and clean and, in themselves, seem an advertisement 

 for the quality of the material grown. 



The third production area is a 15'x84' wood frame 

 and DynaGlas structure in which vegetable transplants 

 are grown on ground cover. The temperature is kept 

 cool — no higher than 53F days. But from mid-March, 

 the sun warms the house and there's little need for 

 daytime heat. 



Greenhouse production space is around 9000 square 

 feet. But this is doubled by the use of cold frames. 

 There are six 10'xl6' frames that can be heated with 

 propane-fed salamanders. In April, they're filled with 

 eight-inch perennials. A tarp holding the heat in at 

 night rolls up during the day. 



There's an equal number of smaller unheated frames. 

 An unheated frame 3 1/2 feet-wide runs the length of 

 the retail house. In April, most were filled with pansies 

 in white Tote Trays. Plastic rolls down at night. 



ERIK SEES WHOLESALE AND RETAIL as two dis- 

 tinct ways of doing things. Maple Leaf is retail and is 



