MEMBER PROFILE 



Uavis Brook Farm 



New Enterprise in an Industrious Landscape ^ 



T*he 1830s cape and barn sit 

 on seven acres on a rural 

 wooded road Lilacs grow by 

 the house; a brook bubbles nearby 

 The setting seems idyllic — but 

 most idyllic New Hampshire set- 

 tings don't happen easily. Davis 

 Brook runs below and to the right 

 of the house; a fulling (a method 

 using moisture, heat, and pressure 

 to shrink and thicken cloth) mill 

 once stood there — the milldam 

 and foundations remain. Behind 

 and to the left of the house, hid- 

 den by trees, is the main produc- 

 tion area — two acres, cleared four 

 years ago, now filled with container- 

 grown material. A quarter acre, 

 beside the barn, contains field- 

 grown daylilies and, in one corner, 

 a 15x45 hoop house. 



George Timm grew up in New 

 York, in the Hudson Valley near 

 West Point. He attended Cob- 

 bleskill Agi Tech, then transferred 

 to Cornell, where he majored in 

 nursery management. After gradu- 

 ation, he did just that — on Long 

 Island for ten years, first at 

 Panfield Nurseries, a 65-acre op- 

 eration growing B&B and contain- 

 erized material. 



In 1Q89, George, his wife Ren- 

 nie, and their sons Adam and 

 lacob moved to New Hampshire 

 to be closer to Rennie's parents, 

 living in Gilmanton Ironworks. 

 Oddly, he's also closer to his own 

 parents Although they're still in 

 the Hudson Valley, it's easier to 

 visit them from Hancock than to 

 drive the length of Long Island 

 and through New York City. 



The business was built me- 

 thodically. They rented for a year 

 while choosing their location; then 

 they rented that for a year before 

 buying. Timm sold nursery stock 

 at House by the Side of the Road 

 in Wilton ("I learned a lot — a great 

 experience"); Rennie found work 

 in the Contoocook River School 

 District (she now teaches sixth 

 grade science in Milford) 



"When we started out, we were 

 literally a back yard business — we 

 grew vegetables where the daylil- 

 ies are now. On Saturday morn- 

 ings, we sold our produce at the 

 Hancock Farmers' Market." Con- 

 tainerized shrubs were slowly 

 added to what was offered. Davis 

 Brook Farm's specialty became 

 deciduous shrubs, shrub roses, 

 and daylilies. Even within these 

 limitations, there's a wide range 

 of material. 



BARE-ROOT STOCK— lilacs, shrub 

 roses — arrives in April and is 

 stored under the barn — in a space 

 with granite foundation walls and 

 dirt floor — until it can be potted. 

 He buys MooDoo (the Vermont 

 Natural Ag mix) in bulk and pots 

 outside, at a table beside the 

 pile Stock is put into two- and 

 three-gallon containers, overwin- 

 tered in the field, and sold the 

 following spring. 



"Roses shouldn't be treated as 

 an annual" and he chooses types 

 for hardiness as well as for 

 beauty. Personal favorites include 

 Hansa;' the rugosa hybrids — white, 

 pink, red; the Canadian "Explorer' 



series — 

 "Alex Macken- 

 zie," "William Baffin,' 

 'lohn Cabot' — all winter-hardy climb- 

 ers. He grows Rosa glauca, a species 

 rose with pink flowers and mauve 

 foliage. 



Production's straight-forward: 

 pots set on weed mat under an 

 overhead sprinkler system; weeds 

 in the containers controlled with a 

 pre-emergent herbicide; probably 

 because the surrounding mature 

 forest isn't good habitat, no deer 

 control is needed. 



Tlmm's devised his own method 

 for applying slow-release fertilizer: 

 he carries a sack — slung like a 

 mail sack — of what's being ap- 

 plied and spoons the correct 

 amount into a funnel with a hose 

 attached to the end. No bending's 

 involved — this method's easy on 

 the back. 



A LOT OF MATERIAL— hydrangea, 

 potentilla. comes in the form of 

 three-inch liners It arrives in mid- 

 May and is set outside, under the 

 trees, to harden off until being 

 put into one-gallon containers 

 They're overwintered, then repotted 

 into twos and threes the following 

 April. Some are sold later that 

 same year; most are overwintered 

 and sold the following spring. 



CUTTINGS ARE TAKEN in July and 

 August. Material includes hydran- 

 gea, spirea (eleven varieties — one 



HE PLANTSMAN 



