M 



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CROSSING THE RIVER 



JM iMttdscapinz Nursery & Garden Center 

 of New Hampshire 



THE BOULDER BESIDE 

 ROUTE 5 wasn't left by 

 some Pleistocene L'lacier 

 retreating up the Con- 

 U VTt A. - ^llnecticut River valley — its 

 ^^==5^^ edges aren't worn enough 

 for that. It arrived there more re- 

 cently — quite recently, in fact. Jim 

 and Mary Musty put it there last 

 year to mark their new location. 

 This was when JM Landscaping 

 Nursery & Garden Center of 

 Piermonc, New Hampshire, moved 

 across the river to Bradford, Ver- 

 mont. 



Along with the rock, already 

 there's a large shop and office, 

 three greenhouses, a shade house, a 

 nursery, the beginnings of display 

 gardens. The place looks settled, 

 part of the landscape. But getting 

 here took longer and was more 

 lively than its solid appearance im- 

 plies. 



After Jim and Mary (both 

 Piermont natives) graduated from 

 UNH (both studied plant science), 

 they spent a few years away (he 

 did landscaping for The Blooming 

 Place in Concord; she was in the 

 greenhouse at Dartmouth). They 

 wanted their own business and in 

 1979, they returned to Piermont 

 and put an ad in the local paper. 

 They had a pick-up and a few 

 hand tools and got themselves 

 some jobs. And some more after 

 that. Landscaping became their 

 main source of income, but along- 

 side that, they were developing a 

 nursery and garden center next to 

 their home. 



They started with perennials. 

 "We've always had good perenni- 

 als," Mary said. "Out front we 

 had great display gardens." 



But it was small — a shop, two 

 fifty-foot greenhouses and a nurs- 

 ..-ry — ail on less tnan an acre; tne 

 16x24 shop "carried no hard goods; 

 there was parking for only six cars; 

 a pallet of peat moss lasted three 

 years." 



18 THE PlANTSMAN 



"Sure, we had customers," Jim 

 said, "loyal customers that came 

 hack year after year and who were 

 really sad to see us move, but there 

 was just not enough traffic to make 

 it pay for itself." 



They'd been looking at possible 

 locations for a long time. Then, in 

 1989, the owner oi a fourteen-acre 

 tarm near the intersection oi 

 Routes 25 and 5 on the Lower 

 Plain of Bradford, Vermont — some- 

 one they'd approached ten years 

 before — was willing to sell. The 

 .Mustys bought. 



It was a good choice. Route 5 

 is a major road just oii Interstate 

 91. Although Bradford and 

 Piermont seem like isolated farming 

 communities, they are bedroom 

 communities for workers in the 

 Hanover/Lebanon area as well. 

 People living here work at 

 Dartmouth College, .Mary 

 Hitchcock Hospital, or at the Cold 

 Regions Research and Engineering 

 Laboratory (CRREL) in Hanover. 

 These are the region's biggest em- 

 ployers and the traffic flows up and 

 down the valley to and from work 

 each day. 



But there were concerns. One 

 was about setting up the business 

 under the regulations of another 

 state. The first — and most compli- 

 cated — of these was the require- 

 ment to obtain approval from the 

 regional environmental board man- 

 dated by 'Act 250.' 



Reacting to "uncoordinated and 

 uncontrolled" land use "which may 

 be destructive to the environment 

 and which is not suitable to the 

 demands and needs ot the people 

 of the state of Vermont," Act 250 

 was set up to regulate of the use of 

 the land and environment, basing 

 its rulings on a "comprehensive 

 ^tate capability and development 

 plan." Under Act 250, the state is 

 divided into nine districts. Each 

 district has its own three-member 

 quasi-judicial commission which 



determines whether and under 

 what conditions a land-use permit 

 may be issued. A nine-member 

 board appointed by the governor 

 oversees on the state level. 



Jim and Mary had to bring to 

 their regional board the complete 

 plans for what they wanted to do. 

 These included finished architec- 

 tural drawings of the proposed gar- 

 den center. 



The board assessed the plans for 

 such factors as its effect on traffic, 

 aesthetics, usage of town resources 

 (schools, utilities), and its effect on 

 wildlife habitat. Its proximity to 

 places of historic significance was 

 considered and a geological ap- 

 praisal was done. The study was 

 very thorough. 



The procedure took nearly a 

 year. Neither .Mary or Jim is espe- 

 cially fond of paperwork and both 

 feel "New Hampshire is more pro- 

 business," but things went well. 

 The only complication was a sug- 

 gestion that the soil was of "ar- 

 cheological significance" (archeo- 

 logical items had been found in 

 similar soils), but this idea was not 

 pursued. 



Their proposals accepted by late 

 1990, they could now wonder 

 whether their customers would pay 

 the Vermont sales tax (then 4%; 

 now 5%). To find out, that De- 

 cember they sold Christmas trees at 

 their new location in the unheated 

 barn. To their relief, people 

 bought. The volume was up from 

 one hundred trees to tour hundred 

 and lots of wreaths — and "four 

 hundred is good business tor us." 

 Their new visibility increased the 

 amount they could sell. 



In January, 1991, they began to 

 build the garden center. They de- 

 stroyed the house (they burned it 

 down, actually) — they saw no way 

 to adapt it — and tore down the 

 outbuildings — which left only the 

 30x100 barn. They gutted that and 

 rebuilt the interior. With the help 



