new 

 england 



anemones 



precision 



creates the 



environment 



The three houses set into an Epsom hillside give no indication of what's inside. 

 The long benches of unexpected color are not part of some arbitrary Shangri-I^, 

 but a tightly-controlled crop grown for commercial cut-flower production. 



The first anemones were planted eleven years ago, after Gary and Sabrina 

 Matteson moved here from Rhinebeck, New York. In Rhinebeck, Gary had 

 worked for Riverside Flowers, a range specializing in cut anemones. When the 

 brothers who ran it retired, Gary had the opportunity to rent the place for a year, 

 but when he looked at the upgrading he wanted to do (the old glass houses had 

 lots of leaks — a real problem for quality production) and the fact that anemones 

 are a fourteen-month crop, he decided it would be simpler to start his own 

 operation. 



Epsom was chosen because the land was affordable and within seventy miles 

 of a major flower market. 



Gary and Sabrina understood that in order to make a living, they would have to 

 keep down costs. They calculated the size range they could manage without full- 

 time help, then built the whole thing. This is the size it will stay. 



Their land is hilly, but they've used this to their advantage. They pushed the 

 high south side of the slope along the road to the north. The topsoil was stock- 

 piled for use in the beds; the subsoil was used to create a surface large enough on 

 which to fit three 28x144 houses. This surface was built up slightly toward the 

 north, so that the houses are built on an incline, the most southerly lowest (This 

 prevents one greenhouse from casting a shadow on the next) The prevailing 

 wind is from the northwest and the fans are on the east ends — the vmid's leeward 

 side — to work with the wind, not against it 



The connecting headhouse/work 

 area on the east end is set into the 

 hillside below the level of the produc- 

 tion houses. Because anemones like it 

 cool, a windowless work area set into 

 earth is a better place to sort and 

 prepare the cut flowers for market 

 And it doesn't obstruct any sunlight 

 from the growing plants. 



The three houses are used for 

 growing. Nothing else. Each contains 

 five raised beds (three center beds 51/ 

 2' wide; two side beds 2 1/2' wide) 136 

 feet long. The two-foot wide walks 

 between the benches are poured 

 concrete and are used as footings for 

 the beds' 2 l/2'-high cement retaining 

 walls. The walkways are the only part 

 of the floor that's covered, allowing the 

 growing media to be much deeper than 

 the bed height suggests. The media is 

 actually five feet deep: four feet of sand 

 topped by a foot of topsoil mixed with 

 manure and peat moss. 

 Growing space is so important that, in order to create as much as possible, the 

 furnaces (oil) are in a separate room in the headhouse area and heat is brought 

 up through ducts. The duct openings are near the fan jets — ^which help move the 

 heat quickly. 



"Seeking insurance through redundancy," there are two water systems from 

 two separate wells. One using 3/4" line is used for drip feed in the beds and 

 pesticide spraying. A second, using 1 1/4" line, can be hooked into at spigots 

 along the three aisles. Fertilizer and chemicals can be delivered through each 

 system from a 200Ogallon milk bulk tank dovm in the headhouse area or through 

 a fertilizer injector system. Pfacing the tank below the production house level 

 allows whatever's being applied to drain from the greenhouse back into the tank 

 for reuse. 



But there is a fourth, smaller (25x52) , house on another hillside nearby. Also 

 oil-heated and with raised beds, this house is so important it has two separate 

 February & March 1993 

 27 



