I would like to invite everyone to visit Smith Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw. It is a 16 acre collector's garden that includes a conifer garden, camellia garden, rose garden, children's vegetable garden, perennial garden and woodland walk. Bring a picnic lunch and spend the day at this beautiful garden. There is also a historic house that you can tour. I'm a volunteer and member of Smith Gilbert Gardens and it is one of my favorite places to relax and enjoy all that Mother Nature has to offer. Admission is $7 for adults, $6 for seniors and military, $5 for children. Kids 5 and under are free. Here is a link that might be useful: Smith Gilbert Gardens

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

David - I will email the particulars, but I will be in your neighborhood in Oct of this year..... and we can make more in person while we sip some CR! And thanks everyone.... they really are fun to make! Alexa

Donna, they're wanting all BSNs in our hospital too, not mandating it yet but I see it coming. They were pushing it after we got a lot of bad press after a nurse was charged with killing a patient a few years ago. The articles basically said we were the most uneducated in the city. I almost went back to get my BSN about 4 or 5 years ago but the hospital wouldn't help pay for it and my ADN at the same time. I couldn't afford it and had two kids getting ready to go to college soon. Now I will be 50 years old this year and I just don't want to go back. Not only will it not help me in my job but it would make my life miserable and I still can't afford it. Helping Alex pay for his college is all I can do now. My nurse manager just called me to ask if I would work tonight instead of tomorrow. I am supposed to work tomorrow and Thursday day shift...so I'm wondering when my next day of work was supposed to be? I didn't ask and told her I couldn't do it. I mean, I just slept last night expecting to work days tomorrow. Plus I have to run to the store. I told her I had too many things to do and it was storming here. It is, and so I can't even go out until it's over. BeeOhio, no I'm not going anywhere. They had openings in the clinics recently (some were replaced by nurses from our unit). I don't want to work Monday through Friday right now. I would have to commute 5 days a week, park in the parking garage across the street and walk in the cold and rain to our building. I like working some weekends because we get to park in the parking garage at our hospital...and on holidays. You don't work holidays in the clinics because they are closed. Which also means no shift differential and holiday pay. I also don't want to leave the hospital because I've only got 7 years left till I can retire. It would be stupid to leave now and I love our patients. I've also seen a lot of nurses come back after leaving and saying they would never come back.