Shakespeare’s Garden A Delight For Gardeners

By Nancy K. Crevier

There is a place of serenity and inspiration just over the Newtown line, at 25 Obtuse Road South in Brookfield. Shakespeare’s Garden is the handiwork of brothers Mark and Steve Fancher, an eight-acre garden center that strives to retain a sense of the historic Burr Farm on which it is located.

“Yet nature is made better by no mean, But nature makes than mean: so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is and art that nature makes,” reads a Shakespearean quote from A Winter’s Tale inscribed upon a Gothic arched window frame suspended near the parking area. It is one of several inspirational quotes from the Bard that are tucked into beds throughout the garden center.

“At some point, I realized how much Shakespeare related to gardens,” said Mark, “and the theme just carried through into the name of the place.” The bills from Shakespeare’s Garden are actually anticipated by some of the customers, he added, as each one carries a quote from Shakespeare at the top.

Inside and out, Shakespeare’s Garden is filled with memorabilia and an atmosphere that echo the days when the property was home to a working dairy farm owned by the family of Marilyn Burr Ober, who still lives in a house adjacent to the Shakespeare’s Garden property.

“I wake up every morning and I can’t wait to get here,” said Mark Fancher. “There’s so much history here.”

The Fanchers opened Shakespeare’s Garden in December 2008, but neither Mark nor Steve are strangers to the retail gardening business. As a young man, Mark had always been interested in gardening and yard work, he said, eventually setting up a small greenhouse on his father’s property in Bethel and offering landscaping and maintenance services to a few customers.

Steve, meanwhile, attended the horticultural school at the University of Connecticut and after graduating in 2000 went to work for Kurt Weiss Greenhouses in Cheshire. “It was a horticulture company that sold to all of the big box stores,” said Steve.

By 2004, he tired of the lack of creativity and joined his brother, then working out of a small greenhouse tucked back on Vale Road in Brookfield. “We decided to grow our own flowers,” said Steve, “and pretty soon the public started popping its head in and we had more and more customers.”

The business took off and when Mark became aware of the unused garden center space at Burr Farm, he contacted Mrs Ober. “She didn’t say yes to us right away, but she said she would think about it,” recalled Mark. “She needed to really feel comfortable with us and who we were.” The deal was struck and is such an amiable one that Mrs Ober is a daily visitor to the garden center.

Steve and Mark began renovating and rethinking the garden center several months before opening the doors last December, and customers can appreciate the thought that went into developing the shop, grounds, and eight greenhouses where Steve grows all of the annuals into a welcoming environment for shopping and browsing.

The advantage of growing their own plants, said Steve, is the control over the product it offers. “We try all of the plants for our customers and sell the ones that work best,” he said. “We know how they perform.”

The garden center comes full circle, as well, when providing landscaping services to its customers. The plants grown in the greenhouses from February to April are ready to be planted into clients’ gardens by May. The landscaping staff maintains the plants, and then in fall, removes the plants and composts them on the farm. “It’s a full cycle,” said Steve.

The Fanchers carry a full line of high quality compost, mulch, soil, and garden care products, including a line of organic products. Annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, vegetable plants, hanging baskets, and container gardens spill from outdoor tables, sway from pergolas constructed from recovered wood and line the gravel paths that weave gracefully from one area to the next.

The outside plants are grouped according to the plants’ properties, with shade plants in one area and plants that thrive in the sun in another. To one side of the main path are rows of shrubs and trees, to the other side perennial beds abound. Vegetable plants fill tables behind the greenhouses and a plot of roses brightens one block of earth.

If a visitor meanders far enough down the pathway, eventually he or she will end up gazing into a chicken coop where 30 Rhode Island Red chickens peck and scratch. Vegetable beds at the back of the property provide customers with a chance to see how a particular plant develops, said Mark, hopefully encouraging them to try a new variety of plant or make note of it for next growing season.

“Some garden centers don’t invest a lot into the property,” said Steve, “but Mark has a passion for being creative. That’s why the place looks as good as it does.”

Mark’s creativity is apparent in the unusual flower containers: a cascade of colorful flowers erupts from a moss basket replacing the seat of an antique wire chair; an old bicycle is reincarnated as a vehicle for container gardening; and an old work boot becomes a bird house. The service counter outside is made from recovered wood, and weathered window panes provide shelter and light above the counter.

Where recycled art is not surprising a customer, elegant statuary enhances the setting, and metal sculptures add a bit of whimsy to the scene.

“We like to show people how to make gardening fun, and what they can do with old items,” said Mark. If harvesting ideas by strolling the grounds is not enough inspiration, the Fanchers offer a number of seminars throughout the year. Landscape designer and installer Anthony Reelick recently offered a soon-to-be-repeated landscape design seminar, as well as one on pruning. The most popular seminar, though, is container gardening, held every Wednesday at 2 pm.

A large barn loft that had previously been used to store hay and miscellaneous items has been cleared out and is now used as a space for lectures and PowerPoint presentations for private groups.

Mark and Steve view Shakespeare’s Garden as not only a business, but as a place where visitors can recharge and renew. The coffee pot in the barn shop is always filled with freshly brewed coffee, and two red chairs are nestled into a cozy corner where a customer can sit and gaze out the window or thumb through gardening magazines. Antique tools and paraphernalia perched high on beams and shelves overhead maintain the feel of a working farm and provide a “homey” atmosphere.

The barn shop is decorated using the bounty of nature applicable to the season. Baskets adorn the overhead beams in the barn shop, and throughout the rustic space gardening accoutrements and pottery fill the corners. Around one corner, shoppers will find a display of soy candles from Archipelego, all scented with natural essences, and the shop also carries a line of handcrafted soaps. Silk flower arrangements can be made to order or purchased as is, for those who cannot bear the fleeting beauty of real flower arrangements. During the holiday season, the staff makes tabletop and door arrangements, as well as wreaths from locally harvested greens.

“Our goal is to inspire people and help them learn how to do what they want to do,” said Steve. “We want our customers to be successful.”

“We love it when people just wander around the place to enjoy the beauty,” said Mark, and pointed out that a “deer gate, not a people gate” marks the entrance to 110 acres of open space beyond the garden center property.

The garden center is always a work in progress for the brothers and the staff, many of whom are family. “We’re still learning,” said Mark, “but I absolutely love every minute here.”

Shakespeare’s Garden, 25 Obtuse Road, Brookfield, is open 8 am to 5 pm, 7 days of the week. For information and directions, call 775-2214.