MEMBER PROFILE 



15, but they never get going until July." 



Among all these are hardy perennials — lupine, 

 asclepia, ageratum 'blue horizon,' Johnson's Blue 

 cranesbill. Annuals — Datura metel, larkspur, cleome, 

 poppies — fill in. Terra-cotta pots "are moved around 

 like furniture." 



The rest of the twelve acres are woods. These are 

 tended in their own way. Some areas are mowed; some 

 trees removed. Chosen plants — trillium, lady slipper, 

 Canadian mayflower, goldthread (Coptis groenlandka), 

 sassafras, moosewood (^4. pensylvanicutn) — are encour- 

 aged; columbine seed scattered. The stages of succes- 

 sion created allows a range of material to thrive. 



KATE'S TAKEN PART in the New Hampshire Co- 

 verts Project. Funded by UNH Cooperative Exten- 

 sion, NH Fish and Game, US Fish and Wildlife, and 

 the Ruffed Grouse Society, this is a volunteer education 

 and outreach program in which 25 people are selected 

 each year to attend a training workshop that teaches 

 management practices that enhance wildlife habitat. 

 These people then become Coverts Project Cooperators 

 and share with their communities what they've 

 learned. 



The Projects' ideals mirrors her own: "People move 

 up here — they clearcut an acre, put a house in the cen- 

 ter, plant a rhododendron, a couple yews . . . then step 

 back and say, "Hey, this isn't what we came for.' I'd 

 like to write about using what's here and incorporating 

 appropriate material — just a simple pamphlet — and 

 give copies to local real estate agents to give to clients." 



She doesn't want to expand the B&B, just find ways 

 to fill it during offseason. Classes (weekend garden 

 workshops) and special activities (a "Midsummer's Eve 

 Magic Garden Celebration" — which included picking 

 herbs and fern-seed, visiting the animals, a candlelit 

 buffet meal, and a reading from Shakespeare's play — 

 an evening definitely not for the serious-minded) have 

 been held; marketing emphasizes events like the tri- 

 town lupine festival held each June. 



"But I really want to be outdoors." Any money- 

 making activities should "connect with what's already 

 here, with what makes being here so interesting . . ." 



What makes being here interesting for Kate is her 

 garden and in 1997, she decided to create a retail nurs- 

 ery — Bungay Jardins — offering unusual and native 

 plants, some of which she'd propagate herself. The 

 Littleton Courier described what the enterprise hoped to 

 be: "the nursery will offer hundreds of culinary and 

 ornamental herbs, flowering native and introduced her- 

 baceous perennials, vines, antique shrub roses, and old- 

 fashioned cottage garden plants. Garden whimsies in- 

 clude wobble gates, white cedar raised beds, butterfly 

 and bird houses, trellises and faux antique containers." 



Under the assumption that retail sale of this mate- 

 rial was permitted under "agriculture" in the Easton 

 zoning ordinance, Bungay Jardins opened on May 10. 



The Easton Board of Selectmen, which regulates 

 land-use decisions, decided that the business could not 

 be permitted under "agriculture" and advised Kerivan 

 to apply for a special exception. They then rejected the 

 application, arguing that the fact that she'd applied for 

 a special exemption showed that Bungay Jardins was 

 not a legitimate agricultural enterprise: "Retail sale of 

 plant material is not agriculture. This definition would 

 mean that Butson's Supermarket, which sells plants de- 

 livered by truck to its store in Littleton, is a horticul- 

 tural enterprise and not a market." 



Kerivan and Strimbeck appealed the decision in 

 Littleton District Court. In July, Judge Peter Cyr backed 

 the selectmen. 



They then hired a second lawyer, Larry Gardener, 

 who asked that the board reverse its decision. At the 

 hearing before the Zoning Board of Adjustment (after a 

 stand-in was found for the selectman who also serves 

 on Easton's board of adjustment), abutters described 

 the nursery as a safety hazard and a commercial intru- 

 sion. Easton's approved uses for agricultural businesses 

 were admitted to be exceptionally narrow — "but that's 

 how the local population wants it." 



The decision was once again against Bungay Jardins 

 and the case was brought to Superior Court, where it 

 was decided in its favor. 



And it's not over yet — Kerivan and Strimbeck are 

 suing the town for harassment and damages. This suit 

 may also end up in Superior Court. 



Having not heard both sides, one prefers the idea 

 that land-owners can do pretty much as they choose 

 within generously interpreted guidelines, but one has 

 to admit the neighbor's view is definitely less pastoral. 



THE NURSERY is small— a few benches— bedding 

 plants, vegetables — many unusual, most bought 

 in — set on an area of bark mulch in front of the new 

 construction. Kate admits her energy has gone into 

 other things: it has not been a good year. 



But the construction — of what is to be a 25'xl7' 

 shop — is already a mix of the fantasy and pragmatism 

 that animates the best of the property: it incorporates 

 "two-hundred-year-old beams from a bam that had al- 

 ready been torn down;" it has eleven-foot ceilings ("I 

 insisted"). The structure will double as a classroom — 

 besides plant material, product offered include a way 

 of seeing. This will require education. 



A greenhouse — "small, straight-sided, probably poly- 

 carbonate"— will attach to the rear of the structure. 

 Kate plans to have it in operation this winter and is 

 looking at how to best use the space. Propagating un- 



THE PLANTSMAN 



