~ July 2, 2024

“At SGN Trees, we grow healthy trees, deep roots, and strong communities.”

As a summer pace sets into the nursery, we are able to focus more intentionally on growing our SGN Trees and overall farm care. The day to day demands of a hectic spring season have subsided, and we can all get into a groove with our fieldwork tasks at hand. We had a quick “flash drought” come on for a week or so which prompted the water tank crew to man the hoses non-stop in our newly planted liner blocks. We have since had some great rains to take off the pressure to water. Overall, the crop looks great in the field this season. We are very happy with the growth on our trees!

Our crew has also been pruning & staking daily. We moved through all of the Oak blocks and the end result is fabulous! Here are a few pics of some younger Oaks growing along and some beauties ready to dig in the spring:

For more about our Oak pruning, check out last month’s post here:

What’s Growing in June at the Nursery

Besides Oaks, our crew has been pruning & staking just about anything and everything! Their hard work and attention to detail can really be seen when walking through our blocks. Here are a few images I caught the other day on a loop around the farm:

We have a great crew this summer on the farm. Maggie recently visited with each of our summer interns to find out more about how their time in the trees is going and what their plans are for fall. Read more about Carter, Chris, Athen, and Christopher here:

School’s Out for Summer!

Besides nursery work, we have enjoyed summer evenings & weekends in our home garden or the woods nearby. Of course, it’s always more fun to do all of these things with our granddaughter & sidekick Fern! Summer is a time of growth on the farm, but it is also a time of planning. We are already thinking ahead to next season – placing liner orders, prepping ground for plantings, planning out cover crops, preparing for inventory.

While reflecting on what to write about for “summer at the nursery”, I ran across a favorite passage in Wendell Berry’s work “The Farm”.  We often end our days in the woods down the road – or sometimes I go there when I need to clear my head and reset. As we move into a summer mode on our farm, this passage really speaks to the need to let Nature guide and direct our decisions and actions on our farm. We hope that you find time to walk in the woods and “live like a tree” this summer! We are sure going to try it!

~ Becky Thomas, SGN Trees Grower

“The Farm” by Wendell Berry

And while you work your fields

Do not forget the woods.

The woods stand by the field

To measure it, and teach

Its keeper. Nature is

The best farmer, for she 

Preserves the land, conserves

The rain; she deepens soil,

Wastes nothing; and she is

Diverse and orderly.

She is our mother, teacher

And final judge on earth.

The farm’s a human order

Opening among the trees,

Remembering the woods.

To farm, live like a tree

That does not grow beyond

The power of its place.

A tree stand in its place

And rises by the strength

Of local soil and light,

Aspiring to no height

That it has not attained.

More time, more light, more rain

Will make it grow again

Till it has realized 

All that it can become,

And then it dies into

More life, deserving more

By not desiring more.

A few more pics from around the farm: