Here’s What We’ve Been Up To All Winter

Hey guys welcome back to wood street Farm i’m phil thanks for checking out The channel i’m a little mad at myself It’s been two months since i’ve Published a video to this channel i have Been busy publishing videos on my other Channel on flat creek outdoors what i Did late last year was kind of separate The content a little bit so that Everything directly related to the Actual tree farm business is published On this channel and everything related To equipment and tools and property Maintenance and firewood and other stuff Is over on flat creek outdoors so you Can go check that out i did purchase This year a wolfrage splitter it’s over There behind that pile of wood so There’s been a lot of firewood videos Lately because i am looking to grow the Firewood business but uh here on wood Street farm i’m gonna keep this focused On growing christmas trees uh the things That we learn in Starting our business here doing the Tree lot doing flowers And the other things that we actually do To make money here with our business so A couple months ago i published a video And i’ll put a link in this video’s Description where i shared everything That we’ve learned so far about doing Flowers and Flowers has been really good for us it’s

Really profitable and it’s really good At getting people out to our property For the first time and of course that Introduces them to our business and many Of them come back for the christmas Season as well which is obviously great For us so one of the things that we Learned last year in doing flowers was It’s really hot in august in september When we’re when we’re selling flowers And our guests did not want to walk all The way across the property where we had The flower patch set up so this patch Here Right by the wood piles right by the Entrance to the property is going to be This year’s flower patch i put down a Cover crop last fall it’s been growing Over the winter it’s doing fine though The deer have hit it pretty hard Which is fine so this will all get Tilled in that organic matter will help Improve that soil and like i said we’ll Be planting flowers here real soon We just completed an excavation project We had a contractor come in and do this This is just downhill from the flower Patch and this gives a nice access now To what we call our hidden field and That’s where we set up all of our games And activities for kids when we do Events out here at the farm so this is Nice because You know parents and families can pick

Their flowers right here in this patch This will be about an acre full of Flowers and then i’ll be able to come Right downhill and go over here to where All the games and activities are set up So this is our hidden field here we had A game over here last year see that Galvanized bucket in the ground we did a Soccer mini soccer golf game last year That was fun everybody enjoyed that We’ll probably continue that this year i Am going to be building right over in This area a tractor tire mountain Uh that’ll be Really fun for kids to climb on i think A few more trees need to come out of This area to accommodate that and then Straight through the woods this way We’re going to cut a trail and that’s Going to be a shortcut to the main field On the other side of the pond Right through here is where we’re going To cut that tree out of the hidden field You can kind of see it through the trees Here since there’s not any foliage yet So this will provide a shaded walk to The other side and then this is the Other big project that we had the Contractor work on Our main path for our equipment is up This way that goes along the property Line and we have the contractor kind of Grade this out and put in another creek Crossing over here because this is often

Way too well it was too steep and it was Often too muddy for equipment to get in And out on this side of the property our Only way to get to the other side was Across the uh road that’s on the dam for The pond so now this gives us on the Other side of the property Another access point so when we’re open For cut your own christmas trees in a Couple years from now we’ll be able to Set up a loop for four-wheelers and for Tractors to pick up people to drop off People to pick up their trees and so on Rather than just doing out and back Across the pond road so this is going to Do a lot for access for us but i think It’ll be really nice for guests to be Able to get to the other side as well With a nice shaded path to get over here And it’ll be a little bit shorter walk Coming in this direction rather than Going out across the pond road the other Direction So once we get out to the other side of That New creek crossing that’s right behind Me We’re now Right where last year’s flower patch was So we’re still going to do some flowers Over here and i think some people will Really enjoy coming through the woods And that shaded walk and getting over Here but the bulk of our flowers are

Going to be back over in that other Patch where um where i showed you at the Beginning of the video So this patch here has lots of annual Rye grass that we just planted as cover And i think we’re gonna do some We’re gonna do some buckwheat here in The spring and we’re going to do some Sunflowers here early summer i’ve got Heaps of black oil sunflower seeds that Did really well for us last year that Were left over We’ll see how well they germinate for This year since we kept them an extra Year And uh and then we’ll do five or six Different varieties of flowers over in The other big patch It’s been a hard winter with deer damage There’s a heavily damaged tree right There there’s another one right here Next to me These leland cypress just got rubbed Like crazy with the bucks out here this Winter and uh there is Probably some Either fungal or other disease issues i I need to get familiar with and try to Treat on some of these trees as well You know these trees do Yellow a little bit over the winter Some people have told me that but some Of these are looking really really pale They might just need fertilizer and

We are this upcoming week going to be Doing our first fertilization for this Year And hopefully they respond well to that But man i probably got I don’t know probably 30 trees just here Within the lelands that have just gotten Completely annihilated with the rubbing So It’s disappointing because they’re the Trees that have grown the fast has grown The best out here And the deer just came in and just tore Them up you see the rest of the field Out here now the scotch pines are yellow Like they Do over the winter but they’re growing Well just up the hill i’ve got a few Surviving canaans and then at the top of The hill norway spruces are doing Awesome so that’s kind of where we’re at I’ve got a little bit of work to do and I’m going to update you in a future Video on a tool that i’m using now to Just try to train some of these trees And try to tie up some of these trees if You’ve seen the tapener That’s what i’m talking about and it Works out really really well it’s Becoming My favorite tool for trying to maintain Some of these trees in just a couple Weeks i think we’ve got 700 trees coming In i’ve got some white pine coming in

For the first time i’ve got some Austrian pine that we’re going to try Out and if you’re Not getting the theme here we are moving Towards doing more pines more cypresses Since we’ve had such abysmal luck with Some of the fur varieties and i’m also Trying to get away from doing so many Norway spruces just because i know that They have really poor needle retention And i want people to have a good Experience with our trees and i want to Have more trees available for people to Cut earlier in the season and i just Can’t recommend people do that with the Norway spruce when it drops so many Needles so i hope you enjoyed this Little update this little walk around The property to kind of show you where We’re at now that winter is kind of over Here in virginia it’s march we might get One or two more Freezes but nothing significant and the Next like 10 days in the forecast is all Going to be really mild so all the trees Which their buds are already full Uh all the trees are going to be popping Open here in the next week week and a Half and it is going to look like Full-on springtime before we know it We’re going to have to start Cutting grass and spraying for weeds and Doing all the other warm weather things That take up a lot of time so that’ll be

Some upcoming updates With the planting and some more spring Prep and then we get into flowers that’s A little bit of what you can expect in The next month month and a half here so Thanks for spending a little bit of time With me i appreciate you guys if you got Any questions or comments obviously Leave those below i’ll get back to you As soon as i can and hope you have a Good one see you in the next video