Coordinating with plant pathologist Vern Rist, Fusco can help clients identify particular problems and employ effective fixes. She works with professional excavators and other reliable sources for tasks outside her immediate capabilities. Specializing in massive plantings of flowering varieties, Gardening Angels can fully maintain estate properties for weekenders. “A client can feel safe — they can go off to France for a month, and know their property is completely taken care of. My best assets are the people who work with me. They’re very trustworthy. We’re like a family.”
Visit www.gardeningangels.biz for more information.
‘Proven winners’
Tucked away in the hills of Dutchess County, Northern Dutchess Botanical Gardens has been growing an extraordinary array of annuals, perennials, vegetables, herbs, shrubs, and ornamentals for 32 years. NDBG is a family operation, headed by Doug and Jane Santini and staffed by their daughter Marcella and son Adam. With eight greenhouses and a gigantic shade house covering nearly five acres of the expansive property, they manage with only a small part time staff and work year-round to produce many thousands of starter plants and mature perennials.
“We don’t sell wholesale,” says Marcella Santini, “but we do have a few accounts — like growing tomatoes for Catskill Native Nursery. We don’t really advertise to other nurseries what we’re capable of, but it feels like such an honor to have a local product to sell through other stores. People who don’t have the time or the window space on their own property can give us the seed, and we start things for them. And we can do large special orders for landscapers; we can grow what they want.”
Moving around a giant greenhouse under a cloudy sky, she talks about how fantastic the nursery looks when the weather warms and they can put all their stock out on raised pallets, in alphabetical order for their customers’ convenience. NDBG specializes in “Proven Winners,” patented plants that fill hundreds of hanging baskets, and also include a variety of annuals and shrubs. More than half their annuals are started from seed, which means there is little down time through the seasons. This past year, the shade house was renovated. “We didn’t get it done until Christmas time, and started up [seeding and planting] in January.”
Every year they add something new — a greenhouse, a Hosta bed nestled in the woods — slowly trying to improve the handmade structures to make it easier for customers to navigate through. At least one greenhouse is dedicated to producing organically grown veggies and herbs, with over 30 varieties of heirloom and 25 varieties of standard tomatoes, along with 60 other vegetable choices. Flats of luscious lettuces already eight inches tall and a plethora of herbs are outside enjoying the misty morning. Fertilized only with King Neptune Fish Emulsion and never sprayed, this organic offering helps home gardeners get a jump start on their veggie plots.
Mr. Santini, the nursery’s patriarch, is busy 24/7 now, but stops for a brief chat outside a seeding shed. When asked whether the ground in Dutchess County is as full of rocks as parts of Ulster County is, he nods his head and says that the Migliorellis (up in Tivoli) have the only tillable soil on this side of the river. And then he adds with a twinkle in his eye, “The moon pulls stones up by gravity.” That’s why you can clear a garden one season and go out to find a crop of stones on the surface the next spring.
He could be serious; you can’t tell for sure. The place does seem to be charmed. Marcella reports that they escaped damage from the hurricane last fall. “We have a force field around the greenhouses. It was amazing — the driveway washed out completely. We were afraid that the greenhouses would go — two layers of plastic, a cat claw could go through it. We were holding our breath, and not one thing happened.”
Meander out Route 308 from Rhinebeck to the fork at Salisbury Turnpike (which then bears left off County Road 52), and watch for a small sign at a gravel driveway on the left side of the road, heading up into the trees. It will be worth the ride. NDBG is open daily through June from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. In July, they are closed Mondays and Tuesdays, and in August the hours of operation are cut to 9 a.m. to noon. See www.ndbgonline.com for more information.
