Welcome to The
Plantsmen Nursery!
We are easy to find–just about 15 minutes north of Ithaca, NY. Our website is intended to show you how we are different from all other retail nurseries and landscape companies in the area. Specifically: unique in-house plant production: truly locally grown plants, many from seed we collect locally; big, healthy plants grown spray-free without toxic chemicals; complete custom landscape services; hardscaping with local untreated larch lumber and natural stone; exceptional and friendly customer service; and natural display gardens…all set on our peaceful, accessible retail nursery property that’s open 7 days a week from April through October. Take a few minutes to click through some of our pages and tabs and you’ll see for yourself why we hear so often “I wish I’d come here sooner!”.
OPEN for the season!
482 Peruville Road, Groton NY 13073
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About Us
We combine extensive professional nursery and landscape experience with real, progressive environmental practices.
We work to balance many common, modern garden and landscape goals: deer resistance, pollinator and habitat value, realistic functional needs such as privacy and convenience, as well as the desire for beauty and added value at home.
Retail Nursery
We offer clean, robust plants in a spray-free environment. This means no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides or other chemical applications often used in plant production. We grow and sell everything including organic veggie starts, shrubs, trees, ferns, perennials, deer-resistant plants, vines, ornamental grasses, and edible perennials. We grow the greatest diversity of native plants available in NY.
Events & Talks
We participate in local and regional events, and are proud founders of the Ithaca Native Landscape Symposium (est. 2007).
Dan's presentations share all original photos and ideas, based on 35 years of experience in horticulture & ecology. They offer unique perspectives on sustainable nursery and landscape practices. The overall aim is to articulate the voice of native plants calling to us from their habitats, in the real world, and to learn from that how to grow them and care for them in the landscape.
Maintenance
All landscapes benefit from some maintenance. There is no such thing as a no-maintenance landscape! Low-maintenance is more accurate, and that's our goal. We see two common scenarios where landscapes need maintenance
1) New Landscapes: where plants need time to grow in, establish, and take up the space allocated to them in a thoughtful landscape plan.
2) Old Landscapes: which have been neglected over time and need work such as beds redifined, pruning or cut backs, divisions, mulch etc.
Stonework
Living in an area geologically exciting as the Finger Lakes, we prefer to use natural stone and wood in most landscapes. However, we are comfortable working with the widest range of materials on all types of projects
Our main areas of focus are:.
–New walls, walkways, patios and stone steps (from scratch, or to replace old stonework)
–Rebuilding old natural stone walls when the stone quality is good but original wall construction has failed over time (and addressing drainage issues in the process)
–Designing and Integrating new custom stonework with new plantings to solve landscape flow problems, or to help connect new features on your property (e.g.,
you’ve added or extended the driveway, remodeled your home, or added a deck or new entrance)
Landscape Carpentry
We always build for the long term, and for the elements of our Finger Lakes climate. We generally sink every post in concrete, we use full dimension 6” x 6” custom-sawn timbers, when most commercial lumber is really about 5” x 5” ,we use the heaviest grade hardware on all our installations, and we work almost exclusively with a local supplier of larch timber.
Our main areas of focus are:
–New timber retaining walls (usually with stairs built in), and plantings in the beds that retaining walls create
--Pergolas, Fences and Railings
–Raised beds for Gardens (these almost always require fences for protection from deer and rabbits)
–Designing and Integrating new landscape structures and connections, with new plantings, to solve landscape flow problems, or to help connect new features on your property (e.g., you’ve added or extended the driveway, remodeled your home, or added a deck or new entrance)