Signs of spring are everywhere at the nursery this week! We have been busy getting ready for spring tree harvest and planting. Our SGN Team has started back for the season to help prepare for the busy months ahead. To get ready for spring harvest, we are prepping our burlap bags and piling up the wire baskets. In the field, we are tagging customer orders as they come in. Tags are flying down the nursery rows which signals a strong season ahead for sales. As we tag orders, we are also making some production and sales decisions along the way. This is the time of year we clear out blocks and make way for new trees. To decide this, we look at our inventory numbers and project how many extra trees to dig on speculation for our above ground SGN Holding Yard. Experience and instinct usually guide those decisions. The goal is not to have any extra trees above ground at the end of the season and plenty of empty blocks in the field for planting in 2023. Time will tell if we get it right!

To get ready for spring planting, we are finalizing our liner orders and setting up our receiving dates. Our new liner crop is set to arrive from our supplier partner nurseries later this month. If the weather allows, we will plant late March – early April. We did most of our field prep work last fall, so many of our new blocks are ready to plant. We just need to go through our empty blocks and decide which trees to plant where. Those plans are underway, and soon we will be planting new trees ready to grow for the future!

Back in the office, we have been finishing up some remodeling of our lunchroom and employee spaces. We expanded the lunchroom and added on a second level for additional employee breakroom and office space. We are excited for the improvements that our SGN Team can benefit from this season!

By this time next month, things will look and feel a lot different around the nursery. Spring has a way of doing that around here! When it does arrive, we will be ready. We look forward to growing for you this spring!