About Pumpkin Brook

Pumpkin Brook Organic Gardening, Inc. provides organic land care services in northwest suburban Boston, including Lincoln, Concord, Carlisle, Groton, Acton, Lexington, and surrounding towns. Our primary service is skilled maintenance of existing gardens. We also provide design and installation services for residential properties and sustainable plant health care programs.

Pumpkin Brook Organic Gardening, Inc. was founded in 2001. Its predecessor was a business called The Seedling Specialist which grew and sold heirloom plants from 1997-2001.  Today this operation continues each spring with a new focus on custom growing plants for our clientele.

Our Mission

To provide professional organic land care in a way that ...

• Creates beauty with natural plant materials appropriate to the historic nature of the home and property
• Respects the rights and health of employees, customers, and the environment
• Educates customers in organic principles
• Follows the Northeast Organic Farming Association's Organic Land Care Standards as revised in 2003.

"We know too little of the threads that bind the soil organisms
to each other and to their world, and to the world above."

Rachel Carson clearly understood the importance soil played in a healthy environment. The above quote, taken from her book, Silent Spring, remains as true today as it did when it was first published in 1962. Although soil is the most crucial ingredient to the success of any landscape or garden endeavor, the overall understanding of this medium beneath our feet still remains poorly understood. The use of pesticides, herbicides, and petrochemical fertilizers serves to marginalize the communities of soil microbes essential to proper functioning of a healthy soil foodweb.

When gardens are maintained from an organic perspective, plantings become better established and over time they require less maintenance inputs such as water and fertilization. The organic approach also creates an environment that is healthier for the homeowner.

As members of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, we have helped develop the Massachusetts and Connecticut organic standards for land care. The soil is the most crucial ingredient in successful gardening. Using pesticides, herbicides, and petrochemical fertilizers is damaging to the soil, and all the microbes and animals that live in it and on it. As members of the Northeast Organic Farming Association, we have helped develop the Massachusetts and Connecticut organic standards for land care.

Pumpkin Brook activities

• Professional Gardening Services
• Gardening Talks

Priscilla Hutt Williams, President

Priscilla Hutt Williams <phw@seedlingspecialist.com> is a founding member of the NOFA Organic Land Care Committee which developed standards for organic land care and the course which trains and accredits landscape professionals. She is an ISA certified arborist, holds a Certificate in Permaculture Design from Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Certificate in Conservation Horticulture from the New England Wild Flower Society and a Letter of Participation in Historic Landscape Preservation from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. In addition she holds a Masters of Business Administration from Babson College.

Priscilla has been gardening since childhood and developed a keen interest in the flowers of yesteryear. She continues to grow heirloom varieties from seed each season and is a frequent lecturer on organic and historic topics.

Memberships

• Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University
• ELA - Ecological Landscaping Association
• ISA – International Society of Arboriculture
• MHS - Massachusetts Horticultural Society
• NEWFS - New England Wild Flower Society
• NOFA – Northeast Organic Farming Association
• North American Rock Garden Society
• North American Heather Society
• Occidental Arts and Ecology Center
• Perennial Plant Association
• SSE - Seed Savers Exchange
• SPNEA - Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities
• Worcester County Horticultural Society

Certifications & Accreditations

• NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional
• ISA Certified Arborist NE-6491A
• Massachusetts Pesticide Applicators License #29051 *

*This license is necessary for us to provide you with any garden treatments, including Environmental Protection Agency registered organic ones.

Carmine Imbriglio, Project Manager

Carmine Imbriglio <cdi@seedlingspecialist.com> holds an AS in Turfgrass Management from the Stockbridge School of Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He also holds a BS in Management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. In addition, he is a Massachusetts Certified Landscape Professional (MCLP) and an Interlocking Concrete Paver Institute (ICPI) graduate.

Carmine's most recent volunteer efforts include an elementary school butterfly garden project and a concrete paver walkway for a non-profit organization.

Certifications & Accreditations

• NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional
• Massachusetts Certified Landcape Professional #1469
• ICPI Certified
• International Society of Arborists #NE-6711A
• Massachusetts Pesticide Applicators License #30358 *

* This license is necessary for us to provide you with any garden treatments, including Environmental Protection Agency registered organic ones.

Stephanie White Stanton, Project Manager

Prior to becoming a professional landscape gardener, Stephanie White Stanton <sws@seedlingspecialist.com> studied painting at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth and received a master's degree in education from Antioch New England. Her work experience includes teaching positions with Massachusetts Audubon and the Museum of Science, Boston. She has been gardening all her life and operated her own landscape gardening business for 14 years in the Harvard area.

Stephanie keeps bees and processes honey each season. She finds gardening to be the perfect amalgamation of art and science.

Certifications & Accreditations

• NOFA Accredited Organic Land Care Professional
• Certified Master Gardener, Massachusetts Horticultural Society
• UMass Extension Green School Graduate, University of Massachusetts

Pumpkin Brook Crew

We employ a crew of gardeners who work almost exclusively with hand tools. We conform to the Northeast Organic Farming Association's Standards for Organic Land Care, as revised for 2008, and are proud to state that seven of our staff are Accredited Organic Land Care Professionals.

NOFA Interstate Council

Contact

Pumpkin Brook Organic Gardening, Inc.
Priscilla Hutt Williams
35 Turner Road
Townsend, Massachusetts 01469

voice: 978-597-3005, fax: 772-264-7886

phw@seedlingspecialist.com

http://www.seedlingspecialist.com/