A Year in the Life

The life of a Real Tree farming family is a busy one. There is much to be done and most of it is done by family members. George Haramis, of Heritage Farms in northeastern Ohio, invited Real Trees 4 Kids to take a look behind the scenes of a family farm that has been operating for over 150 years. Heritage Farms is currently run by George, his wife Carol, and their family. Click on a month below to follow the year of this Real Tree family.

The busy December sales time is over, we have enjoyed our Christmas celebrations, and we have had a bit of rest. Now it's time to "hit the books."

January is the time to do the end-of-the-year accounting work. We have to calculate how much money we made during the year AND how much we owe. We also take a complete field inventory of the trees. It is important that we check and double check our records to be sure these numbers and amounts are correct.

January is also the month when we prepare our taxes for the government. We have to pay payroll taxes, worker's compensation, local taxes, state and federal taxes. All of the information that we gather must be sent to our tax accountant. Once the information is in his office, we must make sure he doesn't have any questions about the stacks of information we have sent.

The sales from November and December allow us to pay for a whole year's worth of many of our bills. For instance, we pay twelve months worth of things like insurance policies, car payments, and mortgage payments. These payments are only made after hours of careful planning. During that planning time, we must try to predict what will happen on the farm for the next 12 months. Once we have made our predictions, we must set priorities and carry out our plans for the year. We will not have any more income until the daylily sales begin in June so we must stick to our plans!

In addition to the accounting and planning, we must also read all of the feedback from our employees and customers. The feedback information we have collected over the last six weeks will help us plan how to improve the whole operation.

In the field, deer repellent must be applied to the trees. George usually drives the sprayer while Carol helps with getting the mix prepared and having a water supply ready. Because of our northern Ohio weather, we only have a short time to get this done. We must also order mum cuttings so that they can be delivered in time for planting in June.

Last, but certainly not least, Carol plans our annual employee party. We do this to thank everyone who has helped us during the year!

Top

February

February is a time to rest. It is also the month when we go to meetings. We get together with other farmers and operation owners to learn about new ideas in the business of farming. This also gives us a chance to meet with business friends that we don't often get to see.

Back on the farm, deer repellent must be applied. George is in charge of driving the sprayer and Carol makes sure the mix is prepared and that there is enough water on hand to get the job done. Since there is little else to do in the fields, February is the time to shop for new equipment.

Top

March

To get ready for the upcoming growing season, we must take time to make sure our equipment is working properly. Tractors and mowers are checked and any necessary parts are ordered. We have to do this now so the machines are ready for us in April.

Another March job is to double-check our seedling orders. It is important that we verify that what we ordered is available. We must also schedule the shipping dates. In addition to the seedlings, we spend some time lining up our chemical supplies for the season. The first application of chemicals (dormant oil) is usually in late March. Like the deer repellent in January and February, these chemicals are applied by George and Carol.

To be prepared for tree planting in April, we must hire a small group of tree planters. We need to find about 6 employees who will be able to work 2 or 3 weekends starting in the middle of April. Although we only need 6 employees, we usually hire about 10 high school students. These 10 employees share the work so that we have the workers we need and they can work around their athletic and school schedules.

Top

April

In early April, it's time for preparing the fields. We begin preparing the fields in the fall. Sometimes, however, we can't finish in the fall, so we must begin again in April. The weather is not always cooperative in April, so some years we are not able to get the fields set up the way we really want them.

We pick up the seedlings we ordered from the nursery and plant trees in the second half of April. Depending on our plans for the year, we plant between 3,000 and 4,000 seedlings by hand. We don't like to use herbicides in our fields so we must control weeds by mowing. In order to do this, we must be very precise when we plant so we can easily mow the rows in both directions (and even on the diagonals when the trees are small). Carol and George join the employee team for planting time. Everyone is busy!

At Heritage Farms, we offer daylilies for sale beginning in June. In order to be ready, Carol double checks the requirements for new daylily cultivars and places our order. We plant over 350 varieties so this can be a big job! We must also order pots, potting soil, fertilizer, and such. These items will be delivered in late May.

In late April, we do another round of spraying.

Top

May

The grass is now growing fast. In fact, this is the fastest it will grow all year. To keep up, we must mow and mow and mow and mow. The whole farm will get mowed between 3 and 4 times this month. Much of the mowing is done by family members because our part-time high school employees are very busy with school and school activities.

May is a good time to take another look at the new seedling plantings. If necessary, we make adjustments during this time.

For our daylily sales, May is the time to set up advertising. We promote in 12 regional newspapers and our mailing list has 4,500 names. It is also time to update the web page for the upcoming daylily season. There are many arrangements to be made and details that must not be missed.

Getting the daylily beds ready for our June customers takes between 80 and 120 hours of weeding, planting, and fixing up. We need to make sure that our operation is looking its very best!

In May, we must begin to prepare for summer. One of the things we must do is find and hire work crews. We need to find between 10 and 12 high school students. Half of them will work in the daylily operation while the other half works in the tree fields.

Top

June

Daylily sales run from June to August. We open the daylily gardens to the public beginning on first Friday of June. We are open Wednesday through Sunday for 10 weeks.

In June, it is also time to layout, plow, fit, and plant our pumpkin fields. We also plant mum cuttings at this time. Pumpkins and mums must be planted by mid June.

We really need our summer crews now. This is a busy time of the year. Before we can put them to work, we must finish hiring and train each employee. They need to know what they should do, how to do it correctly, and how to do it safely.

We usually begin to shear the trees about the third week of June. As a rule of thumb, we shear a tree for the first time when it is in its third summer. Once a tree is old enough to be sheared, it is sheared every year.

During shearing time, all of our employees shear five days a week from 7:00 A.M. to noon. At Heritage Farms, we shear with hand shears instead of knives or machines. We know this is the slowest method but it is also the safest for our young crews. Hand shears also give our trees the style and look that our customers seem to be looking for.

In addition to shearing, we mow the fields approximately 2 more times. Thankfully, we have lots of summer help this time so that the family can work on other farm tasks.

June is also the time to do a bug check. We must check the trees carefully. Often, we must spray to keep bugs away.

Top

July

In the fields, our shearing tasks continue through the third or fourth week of July. In addition to shearing, we must continue to mow for weed control. We usually have to mow twice in the month of July. We also do another bug check and must spray if necessary.

Daylily sales are still going on and we must make sure that everything is in place for customers each day that the gardens are open.

July is also the time to prepare for our fall activities. We must plan for and order pumpkin and gourd supplies for our pumpkin celebration in October. Our own pumpkins and gourds are planted in June, however, if we don't believe we will have enough for our customers, we must order from other growers.

Believe it or not, July is also the time to make plans for the holiday season. We must confirm the details for The Christmas Tree Adventure Train and reserve the trolley buses. The train is a promotion that lasts for 7 days in December and our customers love it. We want to be sure that everything is in place so nobody is disappointed. In this busy month, we set aside time to go to the summer growers meeting to continue learning and sharing ideas with other growers. Top

August

Our daylily gardens will be open until the middle of the month. Once they close, the gardens must be prepared for the winter.

In our tree fields, we may have to mow once to control weeds and grasses. We also start spraying fungicide in the middle of the month. This spraying job continues every two weeks until about the middle of October.

While many of our customers like to choose and harvest their own tree each year, other customers prefer types of trees that we can't grow in our part of the country. We have to think ahead and order the precut trees from various growers. We contact and buy from four different growers. This takes careful planning and some good prediction skills!

To prepare for the upcoming holiday sales season, we must also be sure to buy tree netting, tree disposal bags, tree tags, twine, and other supplies we will need.

In August, we must order seedlings we will need next April. This is tricky. Even though the seedlings will be planted in the next year, they will not be harvested for about 10 years. It is always fun to pretend that we know what our customers will want ten years from now!

For our fall pumpkin sales, August is the time to set up advertising. As in April, we promote in 12 regional newspapers and our mailing list is 4,500 names long. It is also time to update the web page for the upcoming season. There are many arrangements to be made and details that must not be missed.

Top

September

September is a relatively quiet month. However, there are lots of little things that must be attended to.

In the fields, we may need to mow one time. This is also the time of year to tag the trees for customers who prefer to harvest their own tree. Next, we decide the price of every tree available for sale in the field. We do this tree by tree and we price about 2,000 to 3,000 trees per year. It takes us about three weeks. We work as the mood hits us and when the weather is just right to be in the fields. Carol is in charge of figuring out our pricing list.

September is the time to hire workers and prepare for the pumpkin sales. We usually need to hire about 8 people, buy straw, cider, soft drinks, cookie dough, and corn stalk bundles for sale in October. We also arrange for entertainment (a master pumpkin carver and a balloon bender) as well as set up our maze and scavenger hunt. Pumpkin sales start in the last week of September. We are open five days a week (Wednesday through Sunday) through the end of October.

Top

October

October is the time to sell pumpkins, mums, corn stalks, straw bales, and refreshments. The most important thing to us at this time of the year is that the kids who visit Heritage Farms have a lot of fun! It is also time to think ahead to the holiday season. We must contact our list of newspapers and get ready to send information to our mailing list. We do a lot of writing, editing, and detail checking at this time of year! If we do our jobs well and stay with our tasks, we get the first seasonal application of deer repellent on! That's the goal. Top

November

November is a busy time. We must prepare for the holiday season. We start with an update the web page. We also have to make sure that our trees scheduled for delivery are on their way and that we have work crews ready when the trees arrive. We will need to hire about 35 people to handle tree sales.

Tree deliveries start about November 18th and sales begin the day after Thanksgiving. We work 7 days a week until all of the trees have been sold. Our days, at this time of the year, are usually 12 to 14 hours long during the week. We often work 16 hours a day on weekend days.

While customers are shopping for just the right tree, we have work crews set up to make it fun. We have to make sure the refreshment corner team is set up, the balloon bender is on the schedule, and that we have enough fire wood cut and stacked for the barn fireplace.

Top

December