CARBERRY, Man. – Graham Somers calls it a hobby gone wild. What started as a small greenhouse a few years ago has grown into a bustling enterprise, especially during the spring.
“I’m an old farmer at heart,” admits Graham, whose love of horticulture is evident from the flora that abounds at the family’s greenhouse and throughout the grounds of their acreage west of Carberry.
“I like growing things.”
That passion could prove beneficial for acreage owners and people with large town lots wondering how to affordably establish shelterbelts. Starting this year, the Somers began selling shelterbelt seedlings at prices and in quantities they hope will appeal to owners of small property holdings across the Prairies.
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Graham recognized the potential niche market due to regular queries from people wanting to buy two or three dozen trees to plant around their acreages.
Owners of small holdings typically have to fill those needs by buying trees and shrubs in individual pots or as bare rootstock, usually at premium prices through prairie garden centres or local nurseries.
“The majority of people I ran across did not want to spend that kind of money.”
Somers Country Garden this spring offered seedlings of white spruce, Colorado spruce, Siberian larch and white birch. The seedlings were sourced from a wholesale nursery in Alberta.
The Somers sold about half of those 800 seedlings. The rest were potted in gallon containers and will be available to customers for planting next year. The seedlings this year were priced at $1.65 per tree.
For next year, the Somers are contemplating including pine, tamarack and aspen. Some of the shrub species may include wolf willow, silver buffaloberry, sandbar willow, pincherry, chokecherry and red osier dogwood.
Graham said he is hopeful that people wanting seedlings for next year will order them well in advance. That helps ensure timely delivery from wholesale suppliers. That also makes it possible to order the seedlings from suppliers in bulk quantities.
He emphasized the importance of good preparation for shelterbelt planting. If possible, a three metre strip should be tilled and worked several times in the year before planting to eliminate grass and weeds.
The tilling will help create the soil conditions needed for optimum growth of the trees in the fewest number of years, according to information that he provided.
In the year of planting, the strip for shelterbelt seedlings should be sprayed with Roundup to kill any plant growth, he advised. The strip should then be rototilled to loosen the soil. Incorporating phosphate and potassium fertilizer will help speed the seedlings’ growth.
“I’ve seen too many trees dead just because people weren’t ready for them.”
Somers can be reached at 204-834-2930 or by e-mail at somersgt@
prairie.ca.
