FARM PROFILE Fassett Farm Nursery A Native Perennial Nursery Opens at the Base of Mt. Monadnock in Jaffrey

Doug Clayton is a caretaker in the broadest sense of the word. Caring for second homes in the off-season is one thing he has done for money, but his stewardship extends far beyond the cosmetic. He has been learning and practicing sustainable relationships with the land his whole life. His new partnership with Aaron Abitz of Fassett Farm Nursery reflects their working relationship with the land and the desire to help others do the same. &emsp;&emsp;Fassett Farm Nursery offers native and perennial edible plants. Traditional landscaping creates a relationship with plants that's primarily one-directional, a relationship of management. Abitz and Clayton offer an alternative arrangement: partnership. The plants they sell promote pollinator diversity and help solve site-specific problems. Site-specific problems are often management problems from the human perspective. Many landowners don't even realize that there could be a solution, let alone one based on the natural relationships between plants and their environment. &emsp;&emsp;Lawns can be replaced with grasses that require less or no mowing. Waterlogged areas previously impassable and muddy can be shored up with native plants. Wind protection or privacy can be achieved with fast-growing plants instead of expensive infrastructure. Perhaps most obviously, but often overlooked, perennial plants can serve as passive food systems for humans and animals. &emsp;&emsp;Abitz, who has been a resident of Jaffrey for 24 years, previously owned and operated Katsura Landscaping for 15 years. The company worked to strengthen its sites by using plants, moving away from the traditional practice of "mow it or mulch it" designs. Abitz has designed and implemented community projects such as a section of Highway 124 "Adopt-a-Highway" program, the Jaffrey Library Learning Garden, and the Goodnow Street Garden. As the owner of the Fassett Farm Nursery, Abitz is hopeful that he can now source the plants necessary for the most resilient landscapes, both for the projects he designs and as an important resource open to the public. Abitz now designs, consults and installs through Fassett Farm Nursery. &emsp;&emsp;Clayton, the property caretaker at 822 Mountain Road for 30 years, was gifted the land and accompanying 1800s farmhouse by Dr. Graham Jeffries and his wife Elizabeth Jeffries in 2019. Clayton immediately began strategizing how to not only maintain the property, which had been functioning as a summer camp but how to make it sustain itself and its owners. In Jaffrey's Mountain Zone, only agriculture purposes are permitted. The fact that opportunity and skillset dovetailed perfectly is taken in stride by Clayton. &emsp;&emsp;"These things just seem to fall in my lap," he says of the path, now embarked on seems as close to predestination as it gets. Two variances were met with broad community support for the endeavor, including the nursery business permitting and an expansion of the hoop house. &emsp;&emsp;Turning off Route 124, the gravel driveway weaves into a stand of stately maples that shelter the farmhouse. When Clayton took ownership of the property, the woods encircled the house, young hardwoods obscuring the two small spring ponds. &emsp;&emsp;Before the nursery could be a reality, the land needed to be opened up. Clayton was eager to reclaim the view, the foundation of the historical relationship with the Mt. Monadnock that had defined the property for over 200 years. Former owners had occasionally selectively cut and dropped trees in this service, but more was necessary. Clayton was also eager to be a good steward of the 10 acres of forest. Harvesting the mature pines would, in turn, release the next crop of hardwoods to become a canopy of maples and cherry. In 2020 Clayton convinced a logging team to whole-tree harvest the forest for this purpose. &emsp;&emsp;Two acres of the logged area were stumped and could immediately be planted to native meadow plants; other areas with stumps and slash will later be developed into huge beds with berries. "Hugelkultur" is a process of burying woody material to create garden beds that hold moisture and slowly release fertility. It is one thing to develop livable and functional plantings on already prepared land; it is another to reimagine a landscape entirely. Once cleared and left unmanaged, a previously woody site will quickly revert to an impenetrable brush of glossy buckthorn and multiflora rose. Already, two years after being cleared, it is hard to imagine that the meadow and pond scape are a new working collaboration between the site and its designers. It looks natural because it is working with nature in its function. Walking by a new pond grass or a transplanted Iris, Abitz points out the subtle human hand. &emsp;&emsp;Standing with a small nursery seedling at check-out is often an act of faith and approximation to imagine it at maturity in its new setting. At the Fassett Nursery, patrons can experience the plants in a natural environment before bringing them home. &emsp;&emsp;Once freed of its 100-year-old pines, the long-abandoned tennis court provided an ideal location for the nursery and its hoop house. The hoop house purchased second-hand from Andy Pressman at Foggy Hill Farm is filled with potted native and useful plants, including cardinal flower, wild quinine, meadow phlox and nodding onion. There is a table of grafted fruit trees and a baby pool full of willow cuttings taking root. Outside, other potted plants are nestled into mulch piles, including coneflower, American hazel, and Aronia berries. An air-prune box is filled with just-emerged chestnut and American hazelnut seedlings. Perennial plantings frame the nursery area with sea kale, Turkish rocket and Korean celery on one side and a beautiful stand of mountain mint and elderberries on the other. A complete list of available plants is on the Fassett Farm website. &emsp;&emsp;The diverse collection is curated in part by master gardener and plant collector Peg Castle. Just as their attitude towards plants is collaborative, so is their work style. The Farm has benefited from the help of family and friends. Abitz's partner, Courtney Cotner, is the business manager of the nursery and design business; Castle's grown children work on improvement projects; and Abitz's youngest son Cedar, who is 5 ½, has his own work site in the hoop house, a sand pile (equipped with a toy dinosaur) that will later be repurposed to propagate willows. &emsp;&emsp;The historic Fassett Farm faces the summit of Mt. Monadnock. Joseph Fassett bought the property in 1829 and saw the commercial potential. He cleared a wagon trail through the back of his land and up the most difficult terrain of the mountain, where he sited and built a scenic destination with food and accommodation for both human and horse travelers. &emsp;&emsp;By 1858, 820 hikers had already signed the registry book on their way to the top. In the same year, famous Transcendentalist Thoreau wrote of passing Fassett's farmstead. The Transcendentalists believed that we could heal some of the ills of the human world by escaping to nature and returning renewed. Thoreau called it the "tonic of wildness." &emsp;&emsp;While people still practice this escapism, the available landscape untouched by human intervention is dwindling. What we have to learn from nature is more complex and hands-on. The education is no longer in the cloud cover of the mountain alone but the path along the way. The work of our times is in Fassett's fields, and Clayton and Abitz are there doing it. BOX Fassett Farm Nursery 822 Mountain Road Jaffrey, New Hampshire fassettfarmnursery.com HOURS: Wednesday: Noon-6 p.m. Saturday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m. or by appointment Please text or call 603-593-8719 to schedule