Troy Couple Embarks on First Year of Sales at Christmas Tree Farm
The view from Ken and Jennifer Smith’s front windows provides a charming picture — rows and rows of evergreen trees, trimmed to create a familiar shape.
If all goes well, that view will be quite different after the holidays. Gone will be the mature cypress trees, and in their place will be the next crop to be nurtured into Christmas trees.
“When these are all gone, I’m going to miss them,” Jennifer says of the first trees the couple planted.
Spring Creek Farm Christmas Trees, located on U.S. Highway 29 near Troy, opened on November 29 for Christmas tree sales. The Smiths began planting trees in November 2021, but this is the first year they are selling trees.
Both excited and anxious, the Smiths are not quite sure what to expect for the first sales season at their choose-and-cut farm. There customers can walk the rows of ready trees, select the 1 for their home, cut it with a bow saw, and pull it to their vehicle on a sled.
We’ve always loved Christmas,” Ken says. “We used to take our kids to a Christmas tree farm to cut down our own tree, and now we want to be able to share that experience with other people.”
Ken and Jennifer graduated from Troy State University in the 1980s and moved to Atlanta. Jennifer worked as a database engineer, and Ken worked on a sales route for a wholesale grocery company before opening his own small trucking business. After 34 years in the Atlanta metro area, Jennifer wanted to be closer to her mother. So, Ken sold his company, Jennifer retired and they moved back to Troy. They built a home on family land next to Jennifer’s family homestead, where her mother still lives.
Jennifer’s father raised chickens and cattle on the land. It had also been a pecan orchard but was not being used when they built their home. Then, Jennifer came across a story about growing Christmas trees. It’ll be fun, she told Ken.
“We couldn’t sit still, and we wanted to do something where we were at home,” Jennifer says.
It wasn’t as simple as buying the trees and planting them in the ground. There was equipment to purchase, and the couple had to learn how to use fertilizer and fungicide to keep the trees healthy.
Varieties popular elsewhere — such as Fraser firs — won’t grow in the South Alabama heat. Spring Creek grows cypress varieties such as Leyland, Murray, Carolina Sapphire, Blue Ice, and Silver Smoke. The Leyland and Murray cypress trees are similar, with darker green foliage, while the Carolina Sapphire, Blue Ice, and Silver Smoke varieties are all bluish-silver.
Before they even planted a tree, the Smiths joined the Southern Christmas Tree Association and sought advice from those who had been doing it for years. They outlined a growing rotation for the trees and planted their first trees in front of and alongside their home.
“Every year, we have to plant another crop of trees so that we’ll have some ready for next year and the next year and so forth,” Ken says.
A small nursery area beside their household rows of potted trees that the couple will plant after this year’s trees are sold.
With 3,000 trees in the ground at varying stages across 5 acres, Jennifer has taken charge of cutting the rows of grass and pruning the smaller trees. Ken manages the taller trees, outfitted with a special harness that supports the weight of a trimmer. It takes weeks to prune all the trees, and weeds must be controlled.
The Smiths prune Spring Creek’s trees at least twice a year. Of course, there was a learning curve to shaping the trees, which Ken discovered the first time he pruned them. Now, he occasionally takes a moment to step back and make sure the tree shape is right.
They’ve learned a lot in 3 years. They’ve lost trees to root rot after planting them too deep and discovered they can’t be planted in areas that hold water. In 2022, the Smiths lost the tops of some of their trees during a cold snap. Earlier this year, they feared they were going to lose some others during a spell of hot temperatures and weeks of no rain.
This first year, the Smiths have 500 to 600 trees ready for sale. They will also be selling wreaths. Next year, they expect to have even more trees ready. The Smiths say they hope customers will cherish their time at Spring Creek.
“We’re super excited to see families come and have an experience,” Jennifer says.
Spring Creek Farm Christmas Trees is located at 4505 U.S. Highway 29 South near Troy and is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m., while trees last. Trees are tagged with prices, which average about $10 a foot. Payments by cash, credit cards, and Venmo are accepted.
Visit the farm’s Facebook page or Spring Creek Farm website for more information.