Six Major Growth Trends
It’s a Great Time to Have a Tree Farm
- Growth Trend #1: There is a hunger for green. There is an surge of desire to reconnect to the land. More and more people want their yard to produce something tangible. Something more significant than grass clippings. Fruit trees and bushes are one aspect of that hunger. Our sales in fruit trees have more than quadrupled since 2013.
- Growth Trend #2: Climate Change. Coupled with this is a growing awareness of the reality of climate change. People know in their head that one tree won't make a difference, but in their heart they know they must try. This is best reflected in people buying acreages and small farms, then trying to create a reasonable microclimate.
- Growth Trend #3: Shelterbelt Trees. Since we've been here, the PFRA shelterbelt program has shut down. Here in Alberta, Market Land, the privatized provincial nursery, has shut down. And it shows. Last year, I started ordering some trees by the thousand. Some were for our own use. Some were for resale. Overall we sold some 7000 seedlings last spring. And some of our clients are in a position to plant a hundred or even a thousand trees.
- Growth Trend #4: Major buyers are looking for local. The City of Edmonton recently released a tender: 45% of the weighting was how the tenderer supported local endeavors. Got a call from someone who wanted 300 pussywillows. "What's the provenance?" He wanted to know the source. "Here. Cuttings taken off my own land." Reclamation and naturalization sales have climbed by a factor of 7 over the last 2 years. Last year we made our first sale to the City of Edmonton. About 9,000.
- Growth Trend #5: Word of mouth is spreading. Each year we get customers who come because "Guy I work with recommended… Neighbor got some trees from you…" Last summer I made a delivery nearby. I was chatting with the client on how to retrain a frost damaged tree (not one of ours) when I was hailed by her neighbor: He was someone who'd been at the farm the week before, and had picked up a half dozen silver maple. They had gotten nipped by a late frost. (They were fine -- would recover.) Neither one had known the other was also a customer. A different example: We have 5 customers over the years from Bluffton, AB, a town of about 2000 people near Rimbey.
- Growth Trend #6: The Covid Crisis The quarantines means that people are spending far more time at home. Holiday plans are cancelled. So... "Let's fix up the yard, Honey!" Couple this with increasing uncertainty about the food supply, and the demand for fruit trees and shrubs has skyrocketed.
Given the growth of the tree farm, and our love for country life, you'd think we'd be fools to leave but we have a granddaughter on the west coast and these bones of ours aren't getting any younger. Work that used to be easy to do… well I feel it more every year. Where I used to eat supper and go out and put in another three hours, now I want to watch a TV show and crash. It feels like the right time to a change of lifestyle and scenery. Frankly, there is about 3 months too much winter.
And, perhaps, you're in the same boat - needing a change of scenery, a change of purpose, a new dream to follow.
Got something to say? Email me: sfinfo@sherwoods-forests.com
Interesting? Share this page.
Share
Want to talk right now? Talk to me: (8 am to 8 pm only, please) 1-780-848-2548
Back to Top
Copyright © 2008 - 2018 S. G. Botsford
Sherwood's Forests is located about 75 km southwest of Edmonton, Alberta. Please refer to the map on our Contact page for directions.