St Nicholas Tree Farm

Happy almost Earth Day! 🌍

Come see us at Matter Park in this Wednesday from 4-7pm. There will be lots of vendors, food trucks, and of course, your local Christmas tree farms celebrating Earth Day 🩷

We will be at a booth with Silver Bells tree farm and will have a few seedlings for you to see, hold, and smell 🎄



https://www.chronicle-tribune.com/news/marion-prepares-for-annual-earth-day-event/article_99775af8-c1a1-52f1-8d63-dad1e95c1f93.html

Another family planting day 🩷

The kids were in full support mode at the farm for a few hours today. Sometimes they can be a handful and we’re not as productive as we’d like to be with the farm work, but we get to be productive in a different way. We’re thankful to be able to spend time with them and make these memories.

We have 1,100 trees in the ground so far (out of 3,000) and chugging along. This is our Fraser & Concolor fir field, which we finished planting last night. This field was specially chosen for for it’s location on the north-facing slope of a hill. These trees love good drainage and cooler temperatures than we average here in Marion. We are testing this location and hoping that it’s a good fit.

Hills are a good workout. I’m getting tired! 😃

Big thanks to my mom for these hats (and so so so much more)!!! They’re amazing and block the sun while allowing our heads to breathe, which is a feat. Sun protection is important for me because I am a melanoma skin cancer survivor. So in case you haven’t heard it lately—wear your sunscreen and stay covered from 10am-2pm☀️

Getting behind in my posting as we get further along into planting season but I’ll keep catching up as I have the time.

Uncle Joe’s first tree!

Big thanks to Mike’s little brother, who our kids lovingly call Uncle Joe for coming out to help us with planting season! Joe lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and so we don’t get to see him too much out here in the Midwest. This post is a little bit behind as he helped us unload first round of seedlings and planted his first tree a couple weeks ago when it was still snowing. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to plant too many trees as the weather was not cooperating, but he did get 1 tree in the ground and helped us a heap by picking up trees and preparing to plant trees on the farm. So thankful for family help! Grateful to spend time with Mike’s family from out of town. Thanks for making the time and the memories, Joe!!!

❤️

Farmers Mike & Liz out Sunday evening planting. It’s been a beautiful day! Hoping to get these trees in the ground before the rain comes. We are hoping for rain, it would be great for the seedlings.

To be fair to Mike, we were sharing a coffee thermos and I didn’t say specifically that I wanted half of the coffee…I just thought it was understood. 😔😆😁

Farmer Mike … Planting some trees!

In-planting today or planting trees in-between other existing trees in a field. We’re replacing the trees that died from last year. This type of planting has to be done manually with a special tree planting shovel called a dibble bar.

🎄 Unloading the first round of seedings in a surprise snow dusting. Nature always has its surprises. This is a catch up post from a few days ago.

Mike’s family was able to come out to help with planting season. We’re so thankful to “Uncle Joe” and “Nana Sue” for traveling to Indiana from the East Coast to help with the manual labor on and off the farm as well as helping watch the kiddoes. Mike’s family loves nearby to the city of brotherly love so we don’t get to see his family as much as we’d like to.

It’s time for planting season! Wait, I mean, once this snowfall passes and the ground thaws out a bit, then it’s time for planting season ❄️ 😆

We are back from conferences and back to work, although the work on (and off) the farm didn’t stop while we were away. More posts to come on what we and our farm help have been up to.

Yesterday on last minute notice, we had to rent a U-Haul to go get our seedlings, and it has been a long day to say the least. First half of the seedlings are on the farm. We’ll start planting as soon as the weather allows.