As I was sickle-bar mowing the rows between the growing Christmas trees on an 85 degree spring day I was thinking that this past long harsh winter is already almost forgotten, even though spring came very late and onset quickly here in east central Vermont. On April 1st we had two to three feet of snow still on the ground. By April 15th most of it had melted…in fact most melted during a three day warm span. All the snow was gone on May 1st. Then it got too hot for spring. We’ve had at least six days where the temperature reached 80 degrees or above and it’s been very dry. The effect has been that most of the trees have broken bud or flowered not more than five days after they normally would have. Mother Nature has evened us out.
Chores of the spring:
-I planted 1306 seedlings and transplants in our Christmas tree fields as replacements for those cut and spread 750 pounds of fertilizer among the approximately 8000 existing trees. I noted that deer damage was very heavy to catastrophic in some areas from the harsh winter. The early wet snow we had made a base layer that they were able to climb on and do damage higher into the trees. Luckily, most of the small tress were completely covered with snow and escaped damage. Hopefully they will grow heavily and cover up the damage from the pesky deer….need more hunters!
-Also noted was that about 5 percent of all trees had broken branch damage due to the heavy wet snow storm that we had in mid December…it was the same storm that knocked out our power for a day, but many local folks were out for up to a week! That first snow stayed on the trees most of the winter.
-After digging and shipping the 2956 transplants we sold this spring, I tilled, mounded and planted 2817 plug seedlings in the beds to replace them.
-I power washed 634 seedling trays (that’s enough to plant 42478 seeds) from sales over the fall, winter and spring so that they can be disinfected and prepared for planting again in early July.
Our evergreen plug seedling sales continue to be good, but can always be better…one seedling not planted is too many. Our best market continues to be weddings, showers, and memorials where our seedlings are given as favors. We receive many kind comments after the events.
One of the best parts of our winters is sometimes being able to afford to have a small vacation away from the snow and cold. This year’s break was in Arizona visiting as many National Parks and Monuments as we could in a week…it was all great except the air travel…that’s another story too long to tell!
Painted Desert and vast Arizona sky in late February 2015
Close up of Steph during our trip to Arizona
Steph with an Arizona Christmas tree? A large Saguaro cactus.
