Getting ready for Christmas 2009

Christmas is over for 2008, but for Georgia Christmas tree farmers the work is just beginning so next year's boughs can be even brighter. Perry DeWeese began cutting down stumps and planting new seedlings Friday at his Sleepy Hollow Christmas Tree Farm in west Georgia. He expects to have scores of trees planted by February so they'll be ready to soak in the winter and spring rains. He'll lime the land in February, fertilize it in April, and mow it through the summer. In July, he'll begin the first of two rounds of pruning wayward branches from the tree, and in the fall he'll prepare his choose-and-cut farm for customers by culling some of the unworthy trees. Judy Brewer, who runs Brewer's Christmas Tree Farm with her husband in Midway, says the business is like housework: It's never done.

(Associated Press)