Tree Nursery - Dunton Family Farm

Welcome to Dunton Family Farms
Since 1909

Tree Planting on the Farm

[ Tree Nursery ] [ 2006 ] [ 2007 ] [ 2011 ] [ 2012 ]

Since I was in high school, I dreamed of planting trees around the farm to block out unwanted views. As the decades have passed, the neighboring sawmill has expanded, the railroad has gotten uglier as they use the area at the back of the mill for a dump, people are building houses behind us, the highway has encroached, and needless to say, the desire to modify the view has increased.

In the late winter of 2002 we purchased and planted 250 sequoia trees around the north perimeter. Unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the hottest and driest summers ever and in spite of hauling water to them, all but perhaps two or three perished.

Since we have to carefully manage our budget, we have decided to try and build up out own nursery stock and experiment with forestry and woodlot management.

2006 was not a very productive year for tree planting. We about let the planting season pass but got a few cottonwood / poplar trees planted along the highway in the bottom field.


5/31/06 - While John was planting, I started mowing the hillside and the fence line on the lower field.	5/31/06 - It was a big pain as I have not kept up with it and the hay was about four feet tall and kept jamming.	5/31/06 - I do this as when they hay, they never cut close the the fence. Also, we have been planting trees and don't want them mowed.

2007 Season


3/3/07 - It has been a rainy season. We got a break and John went to work on trees. We had a big cedar seedling in the front that was too close to the house. It was the offspring on the big cedar we removed in 2005. He got it dug out and hopefully kept enough of the roots intact. We decided to keep it close enough to the house so that we could water it if needed. We also chose a prominent spot that would be the first step in drastically changing the farm. That is, a perimeter of trees and shrubbery to form a visual barrier. This primary anchor point also will eventually block the view of the house from the traffic on the highway.


3/4/07 - Today we started the process of getting trees moved out of the big garden and planted. Started by laying out new flowerbeds in the backyard. John got two of the three paper birch trees dug out and planted in the new flowerbed by the house driveway. In digging up one birch, he also got a 15 foot tree dug out that looks like a black walnut with maroon leaves and a peanut butter scent. That one we planted in the bottom pasture near the corner of the sawmill office parking lot. So we got a few trees planted so far this year. The goal is to get all of the trees (perhaps a couple of hundred) moved and planted around the perimeter. Nearly all are deciduous. So after the planting is done, I plan on buying a bunch of two year of pine or sequoia seedlings, potting them, and growing them out for a year or so before planting.

3/6/07 - It was a rare beautiful day so we got outside. Dad mowed the yard and orchards, Mom cleaned up flowerbeds, I mowed the bottom field's perimeter. While I was mowing, John used the string trimmer to prepare spots to plant more trees. When we were done, we got the third and last birch planted in the new flowerbed in the backyard.


Facing SW - Flowerbed marked out.	Closer view.	Facing NE - Same trees.

Hillside mowed - Facing west.	Bottom field's highway fence line - Facing north.	Bottom field's sawmill office fence line - Facing west. Sequoia tree seedling in the distance, unknown tree John planted on 3/4.

	Same tree as the last picture, at the corner of the mill parking lot, facing south back towards the farm buildings.

3/10/07 - Although it was showering, John and I got in a couple of hours and got about twenty trees moved and planted. My cousin had brought us just enough pine seedlings to get a row planted along the whole highway frontage in the bottom (North) field. The following day (3/11), I got the area around all of the trees and along the mill office mowed and bagged. The clippings are used to mulch around the trees.

3/26 to 3/29/07 - John and Ryan got all of the trees dug out of the nursery beds and spent the better part of the week planting them around the whole perimeter of the farm. They planted them from where John and I had left off at the northwest corner of the farm near the sawmill office all the way to the southwest corner near the old tavern property. A nice piece of work.

All of the trees were deciduous - maples, pin oaks, walnuts. The plan now is to buy a bunch of sequoia trees and get them repotted up into gallon pots. We'll grow them up another year and plant next fall / spring. Time to research sources and prices.

Welcome to Dunton Family Farms Since 1909

Welcome to Dunton Family Farms
Since 1909