At Tripple Brook Farm we strive to make our gardens as productive, attractive, and interesting as possible – and to help others do the same with their gardens. We are a small nursery, but we currently offer over 100 species of plants for sale. Some of these are commonly available from other commercial sources, while quite a few of the others are harder to come by. Many of the plants which we list are natives (meaning, for our purposes, native to some portion of eastern and central North America, east of the Rockies.)

While we do offer some exotic plant species, we feel there is much to be said for getting to know and cultivate the plants native to our region. This emphasis on natives is reflected in our plant offerings, especially in our newer additions. Natives at Tripple Brook are available in a great range of sizes, shapes, appearances, flower color and time, fragrances, and other characteristics. We carry plants suitable for a wide range of growing conditions and to suit a variety of uses.

The plants which we list here are mostly propagated in our nursery or collected from carefully managed wild stands on the farm. Our objective is to acquire plants from other sources just for the purpose of establishing foundation stock.

In the process of learning to manage our gardens in the way that will yield the greatest benefits, we have grappled with the question of whether to use chemical herbicides and pesticides. We minimize the use of herbicides as much as is practical, and for pest control, we rely chiefly on biological controls, with occasional recourse to non-toxic oil spray. Wherever possible, we control weeds with a combination of ground cover plants, mulches, mowers, and string trimmers, hand weeding, heat pasteurization of soil, and boiling hot water dispensed from a portable tank. We feel that the ultimate solution to the weed control problem is to carpet potential weed habitats with suitable ground cover plants and to use mulches in the occasional situation where this is not feasible. We regard the other methods of weed control mentioned above as means to help us establish ground covers wherever possible, and we are actively working in that direction. The diverse mix of plants that we grow apparently helps to maintain a healthy ecological balance, and we normally have very little trouble with plant pests.

We sincerely hope you will find that we offer plant species that will fit into your landscaping plans, and we hope that you will enjoy the process of acquiring new plants and learning to use them in your landscape as much as we do.

Sincerely,

Stephen Breyer and the staff at Tripple Brook Farm