We've Got Your Christmas Tree!

Northern and Central New York is not only a fine place for growing apples (as described in a previous issue of my blog), but we also have some of the best Christmas trees in the entire State. There are over 850 Christmas tree farms in New York State, with several of them shipping Christmas trees to other areas of the US. Some people that have never visited our State have the illusion that our entire State is just an expansion of New York City! Well, guess what. . . . we even have trees. . . and lots of them!

There are several Christmas tree farms surrounding my home area. Today I will introduce you to six of them. They are all located in Oswego County.

Young Christmas tree saplings

These tree farms offer several varieties of trees. There are pre-cut trees, you chose-and-cut trees, balled trees (living Christmas trees to be planted later), and tall Christmas trees.

Some of these farms also offer wreaths, kissing balls, wagon rides, tree stands, carry-out bags, and Christmas boughs. Most of the farms that offer cut-your-own trees provide saws for you to borrow. Also a few have Santa visit their Christmas tree farm. Some of the farms offer refreshments for sale and a warming building.

Picking the right tree and how to take care of your fresh cut tree:
When you are selecting a tree, pull on a few of the needles. Make sure they are firmly attached. You might want to bend some of the needles too, to make sure it is not dry and brittle. If you have heavy ornaments you will need branches that are sturdy and stiff.
If you will be putting your tree up as soon as you get home from purchasing it ask the staff at the tree farm to put a fresh cut on the bottom of the trunk of the tree. This helps in the absorption of the water. What this does is it removes the portion that has been clogged by the tree sap healing over the original cut. If you will not be putting your tree up right away store it protected from the wind and out of the sun. Also, put it in a pail of water. Before you bring it in the house put a fresh cut on the bottom of the trunk between 1/4" to 1" wide all the way across the trunk of the tree.

Your tree stand is best if it holds about a gallon of water. More if you have a larger tree. The first time you water your tree use warm water. This will help the tree to absorb the water into its circulation system. After the first watering then you can use cold water. Check the water in your tree stand every day. The tree might take up to a whole gallon the first day and after that maybe a pint each day. Never let the water get below the cut end of the tree in the stand. Be sure to place the tree away from heat sources such as stoves, fireplaces, heat vents and away from the sun if possible. Miniature lights are best because they draw fewer amps, do not dry out the needles, and stay cool.

Some of the Christmas trees on Three Seasons Farm

The following list and descriptions are Christmas trees that are grown and sold in this area.

Balsam Fir: short, flat, long-lasting needles that are rounded at tip. They are dark green in color with a silvery cast. This tree has a very nice fragrance that lasts throughout the Christmas season. We've had several balsam trees and we love the smell of them, but they do not hold their needles as long as some of the other trees do like the Fraser fir or the Canaan Fir.

Blue Spruce: dark green, very stiff needles; will drop needles in a warm room; supports many heavy decorations.

Canaan Fir: similar to the Balsam Fir, but the needles last quite a bit longer than the balsam. We have been buying this tree the last few years and have been very pleased with them.

Tree baler

Colorado Blue Spruce: color can be very green to very blue; they are usually a very full tree. Needles are on the long side. The needles are very prickly. It has a fair fragrance, but good needle retention.

Douglas Fir: good fragrance, shiny blue to dark green; needles have the best aroma when crushed. The needles radiate in all directions from the branch. This is one of the major Christmas trees used in the United States. These trees are very full and sometimes even bushy.

Fraser Fir: dark green, flattened, short needles. Dark green color on top with silver-colored needles on the underside. This tree last throughout the Christmas season.

Scotch Pine: needles about 1" long; tree has very good needle retention. The color is bright green. This makes a good balled tree because it is easy to replant and the survival rate is excellent.

White Fir (Concolor Fir): blue-green, short needles. Very nice shape and has a citrus aroma. Good needle retention. They are a very slow grower, but can live to 350 years. I love the smell of this tree, smells just like a fresh-peeled orange!

White Pine: blue-green, soft needles; retains needles. Very full tree; has very little or no fragrance which would be a good tree for someone that has allergies to the fragrant trees. The largest pine tree in the US. They have good needle retention, but the branches are not strong and will not support heavy decorations.

White Spruce: bluish-green, short needles. Crushed needles have a bad order. Excellent foliage color and have a good natural shape. This tree is good for holding heavy ornaments.

Even if you put up an artificial tree you might be interested in purchasing some evergreen branches from a place that sells Christmas trees or a nursery in your area. You can put these branches in a little bundle and decorate your mantle or table with some fresh greenery. This will provide you with some seasonal pine fragrance for your holidays.

The yellow markers in the front of the picture designate the
snowmobile trial that runs through Spring Pond Farm

Some of H & H Trees and wreaths

Baled Christmas trees stacked up on Trust Nursery farms and ready for shipping to other areas 

Grangers Christmas Tree Farm

View of some of the trees on Grangers Christmas Tree Farm, Mexico NY

Amy Himes of Three Seasons Farm making Kissing Balls

Completed Kissing Balls

Three Seasons Farm

Here is a list of the Christmas Tree Farms pictured in this issue of my blog:

Grangers Christmas Tree Farm: 380 Tubbs Road,  Mexico, NY 13114
     Phone: 315-963-3480
     Facebook Page: Grangers Christmas Tree Farm (Facebook Page)
H & H Trees: County Rte 41 & County Rte 28, Richland, NY
Hemlock Haven: 460 County Route 22A, Sandy Creek, NY
     Phone: 315-387-5553 http://www.hemlockhavenfarm.com/
Spring Pond Farm: 3439 US Route 11, Mexico, NY 13114
     Phone: 315-727-7951 or 315-963-7590
Three Seasons Farm: 429 Dry Bridge Road Mexico, NY 13114
     Phone: 315- 298-6332
Trust Nursery: 4347 US Route 11 Pulaski, NY 13142
     Phone:  315-298-4184


Here is a link by your State to Christmas tree farms. After you select your state choose your Region and then they are listed according to counties:   http://pickyourownchristmastree.org/index.htm

Hope you find the perfect tree!!! 

Feel free to leave a comment. . .

Happy Thanksgiving ! ! !

These pictures were taken a few years ago and you can imagine how excited we were when we first saw these wild turkeys in our yard eating the birdseed that other birds scattered to the ground from the feeders (you can see the bird feeder hanging in tree above them).

Turkey tracks all over the yard

Well, we were so excited that we had to take lots of pictures of them. We never had them come this close to the house before. We've seen them out back on the edge of our property, but usually they were just passing through.

Suet feeder in red bag on tree. 

These turkeys hung around our place for several weeks that year. You can tell they were enjoying their free dinners by all the tracks on the ground under the trees. Those are all turkey tracks. We tried not to scare them away when we got close to the windows to photograph them. It was such a delight to watch them. Big majestic birds!

The wild turkey is native to North America. The adult male turkeys are called Toms or Gobblers. They have a featherless reddish head, throat, and red wattles on the throat and neck. When a male is excited its head turns blue, when it is ready to fight the head turns red. On each foot is three toes in the front and a rear-facing toe in the back. Males also have a spur behind each of their lower legs. The males are quite a bit larger than the females. Their feathers are very colorful and include areas of red, copper, purple, green, bronze, and gold iridescence. Females turkeys are called hens. Their feathers are a lot duller than the males' and are mostly brown and gray. The turkeys' wing feathers have white bars and overall they have between 5,000-6,000 feathers.

They usually live in open woodland or wooded grasslands. They prefer hardwoods or mixed conifer (cone-bearing trees) and hardwood trees with openings such as pastures, fields, and orchards. You will most likely find them in forests of beech, oak, hickory, red oak, cherry and white ash trees. They will eat seeds, nuts, acorns, berries, insects, and roots. They usually eat in the early morning and late afternoon.

Their predators (both adults and young) are coyotes, red foxes, bobcats, cougars, eagles (except the adult male), great horned owls, and domestic dogs.

Coyote      Photo by Ted Link

Well, that spring we had a mess on our hands from those turkeys. I had some perennials under the trees and ivy. They dug up the perennials from their scratching and just about destroyed all the ivy under that tree. The ivy is finally filling in after a few years, but the perennials never came back. If you have turkeys hanging around- that's great, just try keeping them out of your flower beds and/or move your feeder!

Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving! 

Feel free to leave a message . . .

Have You Ever Been to a "Unique Area"?

Tinker Falls

Well, sitting here at the keyboard trying to think of something different to write about, and at the same time trying to come up with something that may interest you, I thought I'd share with you some of my husband's photos he took last week while hiking a trail about 30 miles south of Syracuse, New York.

Up until this time, we didn't have any accumulated snowfall, and as I write this issue of my blog we still don't have any on the ground at our house, so when I saw these pictures I was really affected by them. They were so beautiful, peaceful and awe-inspiring. Just in their simplicity and their natural beauty. No words for them.

So often we don't take the time to just look at one simple thing: a blade of grass, a leaf, a tree, a flower, an icicle. We are so preoccupied with outside activities, situations, technology, family, and personal issues. And while we have to prioritize our life situations, we also should take the time to rejuvenate ourselves personally. Even if you can only spare 2 minutes. Shut the computer off and look out the window. Look at a bird, a tree, your cat. We are used to focusing on the "whole" picture. We've been trained to put things into "perspective". Sometimes we need to just take the time and step back to see and appreciate the things that are right before our eyes.



Now how does this pertain to gardening you ask. When we're thinking and planning our landscapes and gardens, it doesn't always have to be a complicated, detailed, perfect plan. Look at the natural features in the pictures. The perfection of rock outcrops, leaning trees, brush. There are no manicured lawns here, but yet there is beauty in it's starkness.


The birds love these areas. There is much understory that provides protection for them. There are nesting materials of mosses, leaves, twigs, weeds, and grasses. There is food in seeds, bugs, and berries. And running water. Water will attract birds to your yards. Birds need water, food and nesting areas.

These photos that my husband took are from a New York State area that's designated as a "Unique Area". It is called Labrador Hollow Unique Area.



This area is popular for hunting, fishing, hiking, trapping, bird watching, mountain biking, cross-country skiing, and even hang gliding. There is almost five miles of marked trails.

There is a boardwalk that is almost 2,000 feet long that provides accessibility to a trail back to Labrador Pond. This boardwalk will take you over a wetland area and there is also a short accessible trail to Tinker Falls.

Here is a description of the History of Labrador Hollow Unique Area as posted on the New York State Department of Conservation (DEC) webpage:

History

Labrador Hollow Unique Area was acquired with funds provided by the Environmental Quality Bond Act of 1972 as a means to protect areas of great natural beauty, wilderness, and/or historical, geological or ecological significance. This includes rare plant life and scarce animal habitats. Labrador Hollow's topography is responsible for its unique character. The area is located in the middle of a valley running north to south that was dug out by glacial movement that occurred during the Pleistocene Epoch. Massive ice sheets from the last glaciation episode (Wisconsinan glaciation episode) retreated from the area approximately ten thousand years ago. They left behind numerous sedimentary deposits and superficial features, some of which filled with water and are now called the Finger Lakes, while others became known as valleys. The floor of Labrador Hollow's valley is only about one-half mile wide, but its walls rise abruptly for several hundred feet. Today, this unique and attractive area provides diverse ecological, economic, and recreational services for many New York residents and visitors alike.


Because this area is shaded most of the day from the surrounding forests, the plant life that you will find here will be similar to the plants you would find in the high, boggy areas of the Adirondack Mountains. Over 100 different bird species have been identified as inhabiting Labrador Hollow including the rare Kentucky Warbler which is also protected by the NY Natural Heritage Program.

Near the north end of the valley there is a steep hill which occasionally has conditions that are flyable for hang gliders. When there is a west wind that crosses the valley floor, thermals are carried up to the launch site of a 700 foot hill. All hang gliding conducted at this site is with a permit obtained from the state only, and only non-motorized hang gliders are permitted. Also, if you do get a permit, you will have to carry your hang glider up a fairly steep trail through the woods to the top.

Thanks for sharing your pictures with us Ted!

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On the way home from his hike he spotted this coyote about one mile from our house!

Link to Labrador Hollow Unique Area: http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/37070.html

Feel free to leave a comment! 

Fall Departures & Arrivals!

Fall is about half way over on the calendar, but for us Northern New Yorkers it's winding down pretty fast. It seemed to me like the leaves were slow in changing, but when they did we got a lot of rain and wind that knocked most of them down.

Departures

Yellow-shafted Flicker

Last week I spotted a few flocks of robins in the yard and a northern (yellow-shafted) flicker woodpecker. The northern  flicker is not your usual woodpecker that you see pounding away way up in the trees. They mainly eat ants and beetles so you are more likely to see them on the ground or at the base of trees. They will dig in the ground with their beak.

Male Yellow-shafted flicker

When they fly you will see color on the wings: yellow if you are in the East and red if you are in the West. You can also notice a bright white spot on their rump. The photo above shows the male which has a black "mustache" on both sides of the beak. The female yellow-shafted flicker does not have that black marking. We are right on the border of their summer residency which is why you will rarely see them in the winter. If you are interested in hearing their calls or seeing a map of their range you can click on this link: http://birds.audubon.org/birds/northern-flicker

Arrivals

Snow Buntings

Another rare sighting for me this week, and also the first time I've ever been able to photograph them, was a flock of snow buntings. The birds fly in flocks and they blend in very well with their surroundings especially in the winter with snow on the ground. Most of the time when I've spotted these birds it has been in winter on the side of the road. And because they are so light colored you usually don't spot them until you get close to them, and then they take off and are gone. There is a lot of white in their plumage. 

Snow Buntings

The snow buntings' summers are spent in the tundra in Alaska, northern Canada, and coastal Greenland.
For more information on the snow buntings click here: Snow buntings

Male Red-bellied woodpecker and Blue jay visiting the suet feeder

The sighting of the male red-bellied woodpecker was a nice surprise for me yesterday as well. We haven't seen these woodpeckers since last winter. Of course it's probably because we just started putting the suet cakes back out. We usually take the suet down in the summer because they attract too many raccoons.  We have had the suet cakes up in summer in the past and it was great because the woodpeckers would bring their babies to the suet feeders. The red-bellied woodpeckers are common in the east and live in forests. They will occasionally visit a feeder outside of the woods as well, but they are usually very wary. If you live near the edge of a wooded area you might be able to attract them with suet in the winter or peanuts and sometimes sunflower seeds in the spring and summer. Dead trees may also encourage them to your area as well. They may feed on berries of hawthorn or mountain ash in the fall and winter. It took quite a few years before they started coming more frequently to our suet feeders. The males red markings' on the back of the head are the distinguishable characteristic that differentiates the male from the female. The female has the red marking on the back of the head, but it's not as long as it is on the male.

Blue Jay on suet feeder

In the winter, suet and suet cakes will attract birds to your yards. You can purchase any variety of suet cakes. They are offered with seeds, nuts, corn, milo, wheat, millet, sunflower seeds and even fruit. You can buy them anywhere birdseed is sold. Or you can even get plain suet from the butcher at your local grocery store. The feeder shown above has a suet cake in it, but it will also hold the suet blocks you can get from your grocery store. My husband made this suet feeder several years ago and it has held up well considering all the wildlife we've had visiting it like raccoons and "cats".  Birds eat suet in the winter because it's nutritious, and provides them with a good source of fat and calories that helps them to survive the harsh, cold winters. Other birds that have visited our suet feeders in the past includ include chickadees, nuthatches, tufted titmouse, and other woodpeckers.

Another bird that winters here from the Arctic is the Junco. I've seen them in our yard, but haven't photographed them yet. It will be a long winter so I'm sure they will be around for awhile.

Appledale Orchards, Mexico, NY

New Apples!

New York is the second largest apple producing state in the United States.Central New York is one of the major production areas in the State. There are approximately 694 commercial apple growers in NY. Some of the most popular varieties grown in New York are MacIntosh, Empire, Red Delicious, Cortland, Golden Delicious, Rome, Idared, Crispin, Paula Red, Gala, Jonagold, and Jonamac. New York State grows and markets more commercial eating apples than any other area of the country.

Behlings Orchards, Mexico, NY

NY State Apple growers are developing new planting systems for growing the trees such as Y-shaped trellises or posts and wires to support the trees. This allows more sunlight to filter into the trees which improves the color and flavor of the apples.

Other news in the apple orchards is the involvement of horticulture and research Professor of Agriculture, Susan Brown, from Cornell University, in the development of two new varieties of apples. They are being introduced this year as SnapDragon and RubyFrost. It can take up to four years before a tree seedling produces fruit. The horticulture department at Cornell University cross breed different varieties of apples for select traits. Those include: sweetness, disease resistance, insect resistance, texture, firmness, and other desirable traits.

SnapDragon is a cross between Honeycrisp with a Jonagold-like hybrid. It is an early ripening variety that is crisp and sweet. I have had these this year and they are excellent. You will not be disappointed. Both delicious and great in pies. RubyFrost ripens later in the fall, is tart, juicy, has a high Vitamin C content, disease resistant, and resists browning. This last trait would be attractive to retailers selling apple slices. Both these apple varieties were bred to withstand a long time in storage. Expect to find them more available in 2015.

Here are additional articles and a video on the new varieties of apples:

Syracuse/The Post Standard article & video: Cornell University Growing New Apple Varieties

The Grower: http://www.thegrower.com/news/Cornell-releases-two-new-apple-varieties-218145351.html

http://www.ithaca.com/special_sections/cornell-develops-two-new-varieties-of-apple/article_db15c2fe-209d-11e3-8827-001a4bcf887a.html

NY Apples New York Apple Association

New Paltz Times: Two New Apple Varieties

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Thought I would share with you some of the last images of our fall scene before the snow piles up. As I look out the window it's now starting to snow. . . .

Selkirk Shores State Park

Taken across the road from our house by my husband Ted

The Conservationist Magazine

If you are interested in a free trial issue of the New York State Conservationist magazine you can call 1-800-678-6399. Mention Code Q12PVB. They are having a Super Cyber sale November 29, 2013 through December 2, 2013. Six issues for $6.00. This publication features information on fish, birds, wildlife and natural resources. The photos are beautiful and the articles very informative, and there is no advertising. Here is the link to their site: http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/conservationist.html

I welcome your comments. Hope you enjoyed your visit!

#woodpeckers #snowbuntings #NYApples