For nearly 30 years, local gardeners have found their way to Stonegate Farm on Driscoll Road in Greenfield for locally grown and nurtured perennials. 

Maggie Sauvain and her late husband, Ron Lucas, bought their property in Greenfield in 1996. Ron, a master carpenter, built their whimsical contemporary home with “extra parts from other houses,” Maggie said with a smile.

Ron, who had a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University, came to the area for his children to attend the Pine Hill Waldorf School in Wilton. He was later involved in creating a  CSA and social enterprise that evolved into Plowshare Farm, which is just down the road from Stonegate Farm, and built some of the houses there. 

Ron and Maggie met at a contra dance in Nelson in 1986. They were married for 40 years, until Ron’s death in February. 

The couple started gardening professionally around 2000, raising perennials wholesale for big-box retail stores. Maggie retired from being a special education teacher at ConVal in 1999 and turned to gardening and garden design full-time, designing gardens and growing plants for clients all over New England. 

After the large chain stores stopped buying locally, Maggie and Ron began to sell plants retail from the farm and at farmers’ markets. 

“We are not organically certified, because that is very hard for a small farm to do, but we don’t use any herbicides or pesticides or anything nasty,” Maggie said.

Maggie and Ron learned a lot about the business from their neighbor and mentor, Wesley Williams, who owned a nursery down the road. When Williams retired around 2002, Maggie and Ron bought up his plant stock and carried on his lines.

“We still have plants from Wesley’s farm,” Maggie said. “He was just an amazing guy and a real help to us in doing what we did. We brought all his plants over here, and it made a huge difference in what we were able to do.” 

Williams specialized in daylilies, which Maggie and Ron planted on the hillside about their farm.

“It was magical,” Maggie said.

In the beginning, Stonegate Farm specialized in “unusual annuals,” but the cost of heating the greenhouse for seedlings in late winter and early spring got to be too expensive. 

For many years, Maggie brought interns from the ConVal CTE program  to work on the farm. She also worked with students at Conant, integrating outdoors and nature studies into the English curriculum. 

In the early years, Maggie and Ron specialized in hostas and daylilies. They also farmed meat for many years, including pigs and sheep. 

Maggie has been selling her  perennials at the Peterborough Farmers’ Market for over 20 years, and even longer at the Keene Farmers’ Market. In the past few years, she joined the  Greenfield Farmers’ and Crafters’ Market. 

“The markets are all wonderful, and it’s great to meet new people,” Maggie said. “The Greenfield market is really fantastic; it’s great to have the chance to meet new people right here in our community.” 

This spring, her first without Ron, Maggie has cut back on her growing a bit. 

“Even with Ron here, we could barely keep up with everything we had going on. I’ve had to cut back on a whole level of the garden,” she said. 

Stonegate already has thriving perennials neatly arranged in gallon pots, waiting for summer. 

Maggie’s identical twin sister, Carol, who lives across the country, was here helping get Stonegate ready for the gardening season. 

“This year I’m growing what I love to grow the most. All my favorite things,” Maggie said. “I’m trying some new things, and I’ll have some native plants that no one else has.”

Maggie has received most of her spring shipment of plants. She is especially excited about a new species of bee balm.  

“It’s something nobody else around here has. It’s a native plant, naturalizing monarda,” she said. “It takes a few weeks for everything to root in and be ready to be sold, so we’re just trying to get everything planted.” 

This summer, Stonegate Farm is open by appointment only. You can find Stonegate at the Greenfield and Peterborough farmers’ markets and on Facebook. Send email to Maggie at flowerfarm2@gmail.com or call 603-547-3395.