Hi Klew.
Nice brother you are.
This is not my field but I work closely with such businesses.
We are not supposed to promote our businesses on this forum, and I am not sure if that means not to promote people we work with. If you put your E-mail on your page, or provide another way to contact you personally, I will get you the names of people I trust to do a good job. You can always remove it after you have seen enough junk mail.

I don't think any of us here mind people talking about nurseries etc. they like--or don't. We have always shared such info.

Two thoughts. About where in southern NH? What zone? That is necessary info.

Also, DEER. They are a huge problem here and I wouldn't plant a thing before I figured out what to do about them. Are you going to deer-fence the whole three acres?

Lake Street Nurseries in Windham is an excellent nursery for perennials but it sounds as if you are thinking in terms of shrubs and trees if your sister has mobility issues.

Last, many of us like a book about New England nurseries called The Adventurous Gardener by Ruah Donnelly. Be sure to check if the nurseries she recommends are still open as the book is a few years old.

What a lovely gift!! As Ginny said a bit more info about where in the state would help.

One thing to be aware of is that spring is prime time for ticks in NH. Some of them are relatively large, but the small deer ticks are the ones that carry Lyme disease. When working in brushy areas I tend to wear long pants tucked into my socks, a long sleeved shirt and a hat, and when I am done working, change all my clothing and check myself thoroughly for ticks. Spraying clothing with bug repellent containing DEET helps also. Any ticks I find go into a vial of alcohol and clothing goes outside or into the washing machine after a quick check to find any obvious ticks. Lyme disease isn't something you want to pick up!

Here's a link to a thread from last year suggesting several great NH nurseries (I am pretty sure all the listed nurseries are in the southern part of the state, but range from E to W,) and it also has a link to a 2006 or 2005 list of New England nurseries. Some of the northern MA nurseries may be close to your sister's place.

Where you are in the southern part of the state will make a difference as it's probably about 2 hours from Keene to Portsmouth. Also, where you are will affect the seriousness of deer problems you have. In more suburban areas with less hunting and habitat, feeding from deer can be a problem. I'm in a rural area just a few minutes north of Concord and although there are lots of deer, the only plants that I can't grow due to deer are yews and Tricyrtis/Japanese toad lily. There are so many other food sources available that they don't bother to visit my gardens except to snatch a real treat.

The seacoast is zone 6, but most of the southern part of the state is zone 5 with some of the hillier areas around Keene and my river valley location are probably on the border of zone 4, but all are in the southern half of NH. I mostly plant for zone 4, but sometimes zone 5 for things I really want with the knowledge that if we have a particularly cold winter and poor snow cover, I may lose them.

I don't know what type of budget you have, but often soil improvements can be found locally relatively inexpensively. Many cities and towns have composting programs that make it available to residents. Local dairy farms will often deliver a huge dump load of manure, and horse manure can often be found for free if you are able to pick it up, but it will have more weed seeds. Mulch can also be found from various commercial suppliers by the dump load, which will probably be an important part of the low-maintenance aspect of the garden. Three acres is a large space, so you may want to consider some smaller heavy equipment. You may also be able to find someone to run a tractor for you for brushhogging, moving rocks, moving dirt, etc or if you are comfortable with machinery, bobcats and tractors can often be rented. We have been happy using Carl Mattews equipment in Boscawen. (I laughed when DH bought a small tractor many years ago, but as I age, the ability to move things with that tractor instead of my body makes it one of my favorite gardening tools now.)

Some general thoughts on gardening in NH:
Depending on where your sister's house is, you will probably have lots of granite (this is the "Granite State" after all) though on the coast and in the Merrimack Valley soil is sandier (or on some areas of the coast there is a layer of marine clay a few feet down) and there may be less rock in general. For building walls, rough field stone is often used while edging, patios, steps, etc are frequently made of dressed granite. It's something you have to keep in mind in planning a garden, that you will probably have a goodly amount of rock mixed in with soil and you may have shallow bedrock or boulders too large to move that you need to work around. We buy dressed granite from Swenson Granite Works in Concord, which is our local granite quarry for items like steps, but that may not be the best choice for you if you are looking to build something that needs dressed granite if you aren't close to Concord.

With good planning fall color can last for 6 weeks or more, with the red maples starting the show in September and the blueberries, Fothergilla, Viburnums, oaks, and beeches ending the color at least a month and a half later. It is my favorite time of the year and well worth planning for in the garden. We are lucky to have many natives that are stunningly beautiful in autumn.

Because so much of our year my garden is deeply snow-covered, I do try to grow plants that extend the season of interest and plant gardens that can be viewed from the house in winter. Herbaceous plants and short shrubs that stay green in cold weather usually aren't of huge value in my yard during winter since we often have more than 4 feet of snow on the ground. I try to plant a few things in warmer areas on the south side of the foundation that will bloom early like snow crocus, reticulated iris, and snow drops to get some early flowers. I plant taller evergreens (larger shrubs and trees) along with woody plants having interesting bark (beech/Fagus, birch/Betula, Stewartia, Acer griseum/paperbark maple, red and yellow twigged dogwoods/Cornus ) or interesting branch stucture (Pagoda dogwood/Cornus alternifolia) to provide winter interest. I also leave up my clematis obelisks year round since they tend to look nice against the snow. Many folks have bird feeders and bird-friendly shrubs to bring in some extra winter (as well as other seasonal) activity as well. I don't since we have blackbears emerging from dens in just a few weeks and they enjoy birdfeeders a bit too much.

Tell us a bit more about your goals for your sister's garden beyond low maintenance - do you want easy or wheel-chair friendly paths or good visibility from a patio or porch? Does she have someone to help with basic mantenence such as an annual cleanup of easy care perennials like type 3 (hard prune) clematis or Baptisia? Will she want chair-accessible raised beds near the house for a few veggies and herbs? Is the garden all on one level? Are you looking to put in almost all trees and shrubs? Are flowers or scent or colorful foliage important?

Hope that wasn't more info than you wanted or needed!

Here is a link that might be useful: NH nurseries thread

Greeting, all, and thanks so much for your enthusiastic support!

My sister's house is in Merrimack, which means it's a zone 5 (according to the maps -- we all know about microclimates, however, so that zone 5 is an approximation).

It's a rural property surrounded by woods, not far from a nature reserve. The house sits in the middle, more or less, of a grassy lawn-like area.

We'd like to have beds that are visible from the house and deck, with plant materials that are relatively maintenance-free. That said, an annual clean-up is not out of the question -- I'll use it as an excuse to come visit!

Bird-friendly is good, winter interest also good. I would like to have a Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum 'Shasta' somewhere, as I have one and my parents have one...and we're sort of sentimental gals.

I think we'll need lots of shrubs, but I would like to have perennials edging the beds. My sister likes the cottage garden look, so suggestions for hardy perennials appreciated. I am thinking day lilies, again the familial connection.

I have sent my sister a link to this thread, and hope she can weigh in a bit.

I would like the names of nurseries, plant suggestions, etc.

Thanks so much for your time and your thoughtful questions and advice.

Best,

klew

If you are serious about this, and garden work is difficult for your sister, you will need help. Unfortunately, finding help that is more knowledgeable than the mow and blow crowd can be difficult and expensive.

However, establishing shrub borders in a lawn is a lot of work. Let me rephrase that. It is a LOT OF WORK! Regular maintenance of all the garden beds is so much easier and less time consuming than clearing the weeds from under the shrubs and mulching them. I'm hoping that once the shrubs grow in a bit, and there is less space that it becomes an easier job, but right now it requires a lot of hauling, a lot of crawling around on the ground, a lot of digging and pulling and a certain amount of RoundUp.

Gardening is always a battle with nature about what grows where. In an area that wants to be 100 ft maples, it is going to be a battle to keep it anything else. It's war with the trees. The big weapon in this war, though it isn't usually discussed in that way, is the lawnmower. It is capable of killing thousands of trees extremely efficiently and easily. Once you leave the realm of that weapon, it is back to hand pulling and work.

(and I haven't even mentioned poison ivy)

Indeed, there is a riding lawn mower in my brother-in-law's future.

The lawn is brand new, and therefore not well-established, but your points are well-taken.

Thanks.

Hi Klew, I think Nhbabs really covered a lot of information for you. I am about 15 min north of Merrimack and am a solid Z5b. Anything you find in Z5 should work without any problems. Are there trees in the plan as well? As Nhbabs mentioned there are so many great trees that can extend the season and with all that space you can really plant some beauties.

When in April are you visiting? Last year I was able to get into the garden and move shrubs in March (unusual up here), but we had so much snow this year I think we'll be pushed into Mid-Apr. Some (probably many) of the nurseries don't open until the last weekend in April. Is this trip more for planning and bed preparation, or were you going to try to get plant material in the ground?

I am no longer a spring chicken and building new garden beds with an eye towards my elder years. I make them by piling well-aged manure on top of the ground, enough to end up 8-10" deep, raking it level with a landscape rake, covering it with slightly overlapping sheets of corrugated cardboard (old shipping boxes) and then a deep layer of mulch immediately after spreading it unless I am planting right away, in which case I plant and then put down cardboard and mulch. The mulch discourages weeds (and in most cases totally prevents them) and holds in moisture. I plant with a mix of shrubs, clematis, small trees and easy care perennials. The beds are edged with 4-5" deep plastic or Trex-type material from the bog box store to keep roots out and then on the inside of that I place bricks or patio block to provide a place for the lawn mower wheels to run and to prevent crawling plants from crossing the barrier. I find that the beds that I have made this way, which are from 3 to 8 years old, require almost no attention other than appreciation and remulching about every three years, so I remulch a couple of beds each year. In making them I do need the tractor to move the quantity of manure and mulch involved. My previously existing garden beds which aren't raised beds and weren't mulched in the same way at planting time (even though they have some mulch now) are much higher maintenance. If I were doing this over a well-established lawn I might put down a layer of cardboard under the manure as well to be sure the grass was killed.
Perennials I have found work well are ones that are disease resistant, don't self-seed, don't spread or need dividing, and do fine without deadheading. Maybe if I deadheaded they would look a bit neater, but I don't find it necessary. Once a year in early spring I cut back dead foliage and the type 3 clematis. I remove peony foliage in fall after it has died back but before snowfall. I don't remove fall leaves, just let them add to the mulch. I might put in an hour a year weeding each bed which are quite large. These have done well for me:
Cranberry/Vaccinium macrocarpon
Clematis pruning type 3 (winter hard prune) and type 1 (no prune) which can grow on trellises, obelisks or larger shrubs
Baptisia
Nepeta
Thermpsis caroliniana (looks like a Baptisia)
Geraniums such as Jolly Bee, cinereum, Striatum Lancastriense
Dianthus (perennial not biennial)
Veronica Georgia blue
Siberian Iris
Peony
Polygonatum oderatum - variegata is lovely
Cimicifuga AKA Actea
Arenaria montana/sandwort
Astilbe
Hosta
Ginger

Bulbs: Daffodils and tall Alliums like gigantum or Gladiator, all of which I plant behind perennials where the dying foliage will be hidden

Shrubs that work that I didn't list above in my first post include:
Chamaecyparis
Arborvitae if you don't have deer problems
Spruce: birds nest, weeping Picea orientalis, dwarf Colorado blue spruce/Picea pungens
Rhododendrons - Evergreen such as PJM, Olga Mezitt, roseum elegans
Deciduous such as R viscosum, Parade, Golden Showers, Narcissiflora and the Lights series, in particular Northern Hi-lights
Hydrangea paniculata and arborescens cultivars
Physocarpus opulifolius/ninebark Coppertina
Weigela
Winterberry holly/Ilex verticillata
Witch hazels, both the native Hamemelis virginiana that blooms in the fall and the late winter blooming H. x intermedia hybrids
Lilacs - newer disease resistant varieties

Wow, this is an amazing amount of information, thanks so much!

I'll be thinking about this for a while, checking back in in a week or so.

I'll be in Merrimack the last week in April/first week of May, so I am hoping some nurseries are open.

Looking forward to continuing this conversation.

Best wishes for a pleasant and relaxing weekend.

klew

Klew, that's a great time for a visit to get started. Many nurseries will start opening around that time. I haven't done a lot of shopping down in the Merrimack area.

Someone already mentioned Lake Street which is a great nursery with a huge selection of anything and everything. Merrimack to Salem is about 25-30 miles.

Goffstown is about 15 miles or so from Merrimack. I live in Goffstown and tend to puchase a lot from the local nurseries. We have:
Uncanoonuc Mt Perennials--nice selection of perennials and shrubs and lots of roses with display gardens
Deveriendt Farm--excellent source for annuals in peat 6-packs or 4" pots of annuals by Proven Winners and others. She also has a selection of perennials in the 6-packs which may work for you because they are usually under $3 for 6 healthy plants so you can really get quantity. Dianthus, hollyhock, liatris to name a few. Also has a small selection of perennials and shrubs.
Grasshoppers Garden Center--has a nice selection of shrubs and interesting trees at decent prices
Ace Hardware--nice selection of annuals and perennials with some shrubs mixed in too
The four nurseries are about 10min between them. (Which is why every year I'm broke!) It's convenient to have all of them so close to one another and they each have their own little niche.

Another nursery about 25-30 miles away is Scenic Nursery in Raymond. They have a great selection of native trees and shrubs and many perennials. Their prices are quite good for the size. They usually have a fairly good selection of $10 shrubs early in the season. Fothergilla, Ogon spiraea (and other spiraea), hibiscus to name a few.

I haven't traveled too much down route 3 to Nashua on nursery expeditions, but I think there is a good nursery in Hudson. I believe it's called Countrybrook Farms. I had been there once and recall they had a nice selection.

If you plan on making a couple trips I would highly recommend coming back this way in late-sept/early-oct when shrubs and trees are marked down drastically and you can also see the great fall color on them. You could always pick up the less-expensive perennials at the beginning of the season and wait for shrubs/trees to go on sale in the fall to stock up on those. If you plan it right you can have color well into November. I happen to be a huge fan of 'Fairy' rose here. It blooms non-stop from June to Nov. I have had years where the blooms are encrusted in ice they bloomed so long. I'm like Nhbabs where I have purposely planned for fall gardens. The color is spectacular and it really extends the season. Not a season to be overlooked by any means.

There is usually a GW fall plant swap at a GW member's house in Goffstown. If you check the New England forum in late-summer you may be able to see what date it will be set for this year. If it fits in with any travel plans you'd be able to get lots of free plants! There is never any need to bring anything for trade. Everyone is always happy to give away plants.