KATHAN GARDENS 



Old-fashioned Quality 



ne of the themes to which 

 Dennis Kathan, owner of Kathan 

 Gardens in Newport, kept returning 

 was whether or not he was "old- 

 fashioned." He hand-waters. Yes, this 

 IS old-fashioned, but it's done because, 

 when plants are sold, the remainder is 

 consolidated and new plants — maybe 

 completely different types — fill the 

 emptied space. ("It's important that 

 your bench generates all the revenue it 

 can.") So it may be old-fashioned to 

 water by hand, but if your goal's a good 

 crop, it's an intelligent thing to do. 



You could call Kathan Gardens an 

 "old-fashioned" family-owned business. 

 The business was started by Dennis's 

 father, Oliver (OUie), who graduated 

 from UNH Thompson School in 1950; 

 He first began a small greenhouse in 

 Wendell and did landscaping in the 

 Lake Sunapee area. In 1955, OUie and 

 Anne, his wife, moved to the house on 

 the hill overlooking the town of 

 Newport; the first crop — in a 12x48 

 converted chicken coop — was in the 

 spring of 1956. The chicken coop has 

 been replaced with a 22x72 Lord & 

 Bumham glass house (and the glass has 

 been replaced with poly), but the 

 pattern of its roof line is still kept 

 visible on a wall of the work area. 



How else is Kathan Gardens old- 

 fashioned? Well, they use loam. Each 

 August, Dennis is out searching for the 

 best screened loam in the area. It's 

 steamed and sterilized (180 degrees for 

 thirty minutes), then mixed with peat 

 moss and sand with a tractor in the 

 yard. About a hundred cubic yards of 

 this mix is stored each fall. 



Then, using a blender that mixes a 

 cubic yard at a time, this mix is 

 combined with blonde Canadian peat 

 ("a more fibrous type that doesn't break 



down as easily"), vermiculite, perlite, 

 and composted bark. It's amended 

 with 14-14-14 osmocote; the Ph (the 

 mix has been tested) is adjusted with 

 lime; superphosphate is added if 

 needed. It's now ready to be used and 

 is carted a half-yard at a time to a 

 potting room beside the storage area. 



"Sometimes 1 feel we're still in the 

 dark ages," Dennis said, "but I detest 

 the trend toward soilless mixes." He 

 feels soilless mixes dry out more easily 

 and have nothing in them that will 

 support the plant once it's off constant 

 feed. The plants he sells his customers 

 last longer — and customers notice it — 

 because the soil has more nutrients and 

 can hold moisture while still draining 

 well (the sand and bark help). "Sure, 

 It's easier to buy a trailer-load of mix, 

 but I'm not sure it's less expensive. All 

 the materials 1 use cost far less than the 

 equivalent amount of pre-packaged 

 mix; you do, however, have to factor in 

 the labor." 



Today there are eleven houses 

 (25,000 square feet of growing area) at 

 Kathan Gardens and — besides the 

 family — two full-time employees, plus 

 fifteen part-timers in the busy season. 

 (Employees tend to stay awhile. Ken 

 Smith, their grower — and another 

 graduate of UNH Thompson School- 

 has been with the business since 1961 . 

 Is this "old-fashioned" too?) 



The newest house is a 4000 square- 

 foot polycarbonate-covered Nexus 

 house that is used as their retail plant- 

 sales area. This was put up five years 

 ago and is connected to a smaller 

 wooden building that serves as a garden 



center. The benches were not as full — 

 a few annuals, geraniums, begonias — in 

 August as they are in June, when 

 customers fill little red wagons with 

 plants and come back to fill up some 

 more. 



Outside are metal benches on which 

 perennials are grown. Some are bought 

 bare root; most are grown from seed. 

 They are outside from early spring and 

 can be protected from heavy frosts by 

 electric heaters that can be put under 

 each bench and plastic coverings that 

 go to the ground. 



All the production houses (a variety 

 of types — Criterion, Ohlmson...) are 

 double-poly. In August most were 

 empty, but there were two houses of 

 poinsettia stock. These were covered 

 with shade cloth — a large blanket of it 

 over the roof and tied down at the 



Poinsettias are a major crop. Kathan 

 grows 20,000 cuttings for 8500 finished 

 pots — some pots are singles, hut some 

 use four plants, some use ten. ..five 

 types are grown — Top White, Hot 

 Pink, Marble, Lilo, and Annette Hague 

 from Ecke. Lilo is a favorite: customers 

 like the dark green foliage and the 

 darker red bracts. But "Lilo has a 

 problem — it doesn't always break 

 where pinched, so it just doesn't end up 

 having the number of breaks of another 

 plant." So Dennis uses Annette 

 Hague for his pinched plants and Lilo 

 for his straight-ups. 



He specializes — "We do what we do 

 best." They do poinsettias best. They 

 grow a few Christmas cactus, buy in a 



October/November 1991 17 



