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MEMBER 



PROFILE 



Emphasizing the personal else- 

 where, Carl also spends one day a 

 week doing custom-buying for land- 

 scapers and homeowners in the 

 area It's difficult to find the time 

 now, particularly with the bus route, 

 but customers have evolved into 

 friends, and when friends depend 

 on you, it's hard to give it up. 



▼..."this farm, when the Leightons owned it, 

 was a magnificent place... 



▼ you wouldn't believe the buildings — barns, 

 piggeries, a whole hillside of hen houses... 

 all gone... 



▼ in the woods behind the house, you can still 

 see the remains of formal gardens..." 



T But things go in cycles and perhaps, 



in the ghosts around him, Carl sees what he 



hopes his new enterprise will bring. 



(He uses his own mix — one-third 

 peat, one-third sand, one third 

 soil — for the containerized material 

 for his retail operation. I 



"I'd like to do only wholesale six- 

 pac perennials — maybe even give up 

 seeding and contract that out" and 

 in order to do that, he's begun to 

 cut back in other areas: "Everyone 

 grows mums — until 

 last year, I used to 

 grow 8000 a year. I did 

 that for 10 years — now 

 I grow 1000 just for 

 the retail trade. And I 

 cut geranium produc- 

 tion in half — no whole- 

 sale geraniums. ..and 

 annual production — I 

 grow only a thousand 

 trays now.,." 



He currently grows about half pe- 

 rennials, half annuals — ninety per- 

 cent are from seed; ten percent, 

 plugs He starts germinating seed in 

 February in a wooden shelving unit 

 (three 2x8 shelves) covered with 

 plastic; a small portable electric 

 heater ("like you'd use in a bath- 

 room "I on the ground moves hot air 

 upward, maintaining a 70F soil tem- 

 perature; holes in the shelves permit 

 air flow. 



All six-pacs are potted up in 

 Fafard #2 potting mix — it meets the 

 inspection standards for shipping. 



WEBBER'S is a simple 

 operation... wooden 

 ^^^^^^B benches, dirt floors; 

 the houses are heated 

 by an oil-fired hot air 

 furnace. Both have double roof vents 

 and side vents — and no fans: a de- 

 pendable west wind takes care of air 

 movement. Because there's less light 

 in the second house, it's used for 

 cooler crops. 



The investment is in hours — he 

 and his wife run the operation with- 

 out outside help: he feeds with a 

 hozon, waters with a hose: "there's 

 not much insect problem — if a place 

 freezes in the winter, that usually 

 takes care of it." 



They still have a retail business 

 in the front part of the big barn, al- 



though on a smaller scale. Only the 

 front section — about 14x45 — of the 

 big barn is used Tables are brought 

 outside and packed with bedding 

 plants and perennials Lilies are a 

 specialty — 500 one-gallon containers 

 are grouped near the sign. 



They sell other things ("if they 

 stop for one thing, they'll buy an- 

 other"): organic vegetables — espe- 

 cially sweet corn — in the summer 

 and apples and pumpkins an the 

 fall. Fresh baked goods — pies, cook- 

 ies, bread — are also available — Carl 

 and his wife bake bread at home, a 

 few loaves at a time. 



1 suppose there's a time in your 

 life when you begin to look back: 

 "I've been blessed," Carl says, and 

 lists his education, his trade, his 

 three adult children — all successful 

 in their own trades, Carol (his wife 

 for 24 years now) and their children 

 ("the age of my grandchildren"), and 

 his strong life-affecting beliefs in 

 God and the Bible... 



Certainly, the history of his prop- 

 erty could make anyone dubious 

 about the permanence of material 

 success: ""this farm, when the Leigh- 

 tons owned it, was a magnificent 

 place. ..you wouldn't believe the 

 buildings — barns, piggeries, a whole 

 hillside of hen houses. ..all gone. ..in 

 the woods behind the house, you 

 can still see the remains of formal 

 gardens..." But things go in cycles 

 and perhaps, in the ghosts around 

 him, Carl sees what he hopes his 

 new enterprise will bring (BP) 



Webber's Dublin Nursery, Route 101, is 

 open 8 to b six days a week and afternoons 

 on Sunday The phone is 603-56^-8)80. 



V 





'^y 



"WHOLESALl 

 Price List Available 



PERENNIAL - HERBS - WILDFLOWERS 



80 ^Varieties in 6-cell packs 



UPS Shipping Available 



ROUTE 101 



P.O. Box 26 



Dublin^ N.H. 



603-56^-8180 



Annuals bedding 



Plants (6 cell packs) 



Zonal Geraniums-4 '/2 ' pot 



Hardy Mums in season 



3 '/2 qt . pan 



Perenials 



available in 



2qt. - 3qt. - 4qt. 



and 6qt. pots 



16 



The Plantsman 



