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MEMBER 



PROFILE 



seems appropriate. ("They're 

 touchy about it being quite 

 damp") 



Things grow well, but "by the 

 bay, it's pretty windy" and Mitch 

 and Pat rent a five-acre site off 

 Hobbs Road in North Hampton 

 where they grow taller trees and 

 shrubs. It has good soil and a 

 gently sloping southern exposure. 

 A barn is on this property as 

 well, so he can store equipment. 



They sell to "customers we've 

 had now a few years;" a salesman 

 is given a list of the inventory 

 and sells on a free-lance basis 

 Now, of course, they sell at North 

 Hill. 



North Hill. 



North Hill is as public as Bay 

 View is private. The traffic's 

 heavy on Route One in North 

 Hampton and there's plenty of 

 other businesses around — Dexter 

 Shoe, NE Log Homes, Robinson 

 Construction. ..it's a good spot for 

 a retail garden center — and North 

 Hill is already into its second 

 successful year. 



North Hill isn't complicated. A 

 chain link fence surrounds ap- 

 proximately one acre of sales 

 area. A small grey clapboard 

 structure with crisp white trim 

 serves as the only entrance and 

 checkout point. In the sales area 

 there's also a 150x32 Atlas green- 

 house which is used to hold 

 hanging baskets and other flower- 

 ing material. 



"We didn't want a lot of over- 

 head until we could see how it 

 would work out," Mitch says. 

 "We started with just one green- 

 house — we realize we didn't have 

 enough space — next year we'll 

 put up another." 



It's self-service — customers are 

 given small wagons and wait on 

 themselves — but Pat and the two 



other women who work there full- 

 time are there to answer ques- 

 tions too. 



North Hill doesn't have every- 

 thing yet — they sell peat moss 

 and bark mulch, but no insecti- 

 cides — "not for a year or two." 



It's open from April until 

 Christmas; although it's con- 

 nected with Bay View, it's oper- 

 ated as a separate business. Pat 

 is the manager. Between the two 

 places, six full-time people are 

 hired during the summer. "It 

 works out well, because the crew 

 can work at whichever place 

 needs them most." 



Annuals are shipped in, as are 

 a lot of hangers and all the gera- 

 niums. About 50% of the mate- 

 rial sold here is grown at Bay 

 View. Mitch tries to buy in from 

 local growers: "New Hampshire 

 growers do real well in annuals 

 and greenhouse plants, but we 

 go everywhere for our nursery 

 stock." 



There's not much insect prob- 

 lem at North Hill. He releases 

 ladybugs and lace wings in the 

 spring and "they seem to take 

 care of about everything." 



He advertises heavily in local 

 papers and on the radio, has a 

 mailing list. Mitch thinks the 

 mailings work best, but "you 

 have to have something to offer." 



Along with all this, Mitch land- 

 scapes in summer; Abercrombie 

 and Finch, a restaurant across the 

 road from North Hill, is an ex- 

 ample of his work. His work 

 there included the lighting and 

 the walks, but he's more into 

 plant material and, now — water 

 gardens. 



Water Gardening. 



This year North Hill will stock a 

 full line of water gardening sup- 

 plies. "I like it," Mitch says. "I 

 built the pool over at Bay Farm 

 five years ago. I think other 

 people will like it too." the pool 

 at the house is amoeba-shaped 

 with an edge of blue tiles... 1 3x4, 

 about two feet deep, and filled 



with lilies and koyfish. "One of 

 the fish learned to come up and 

 ate out of our fingers. He got to 

 be a pet. He also got to be 

 about two feet long, so we had 

 to get rid of him." Mitch de- 

 signed and built the pool himself 

 and says it's not hard to main- 

 tain, once you filter and neutral- 

 ize the water. 



They'll also stock a variety of 

 pools — hard liner, soft liner — 30 

 different shapes in all. 



A small display pool with a 

 waterfall is being constructed at 

 North Hill this spring. Another 

 display will consist of twenty or 

 so whiskey barrels placed so that 

 water will flow from one to an- 

 other. A different type of water 

 lily will grow each. 



There will be pumps and fil- 

 ters — whatever's needed — for 

 sale. A range of statuary, foun- 

 tains, and birdbaths is there as 

 well. 



What's most interesting is that 

 Mitch and Pat are building a new 

 pool at Bay Farm— 100x14, 18" 

 deep, filtered and with the nec- 

 essary water circulation — specifi- 

 cally for growing water plants. 

 Open in the summer, it will be 

 covered with a greenhouse-like 

 structure in winter to allow year- 

 round production. 



They plan to have about 1000 

 different types — water lilies, 

 irises — in stock at North Hill. A 

 lot of them they will have grown 

 themselves. 



Mitch sees water gardening as 

 something that would interest his 

 customers and he's building his 

 niche early in what could be a 

 developing trend. With Mitch 

 growing a lot of his own stock, it 

 would be sensible for a beginner 

 to go to a place like North Hill 

 where practical experience could 

 answer a lot of questions. 



For more information, call Mitch 

 or Pat at Bay Farm Nursery, 

 400 Newington Road. Newington, NH 

 03801 (603-436-6620) or North Hill 

 Nursery Outlet, 206 Lafayette Road, 

 North Hampton, NH 03862 

 (603-964-7104). (BP) ** 



June& July 1993 

 25 



