The flowers are so pretty. Moving the flower patch for the flower pickers is a good idea. The property looks great and has really spread out over the years. Nicely done.
Thanks for the helpful info. Hoping to do something like this soon here in Michigan, great tips. Hope this next season is great for you. Another idea for flower fest is to have live music from local clubs
Diversification is key and you have that with all your different events and avenues for revenue. Wish I was able to help physically. Hope some of my ideas are helping you grow from what I learned and share with you. Before you know it those trees will be a great addition to that income. Just keep planting more every year so you have a succession of years to sell. By the time your trees are ready with all your activity and promotion of your trees with those activities you many sell all of them in one year with all your exposure and waiting by people for that year. Just my thoughts. Don't ever get discouraged. Yes it is a lot if work but every bit of income and exposure of all you have to offer will pay off. Keep up the good work. You will get all your ducks in a row and when you do make sure you can continue with new growth for many years to come. All this time and hard work will pay off. Stay focused and I wish I was down the road from you I would love to help you.
Sorry, I didn't get any footage. We were just too busy running the event. The thought crossed my mind, but I just didn't find the mental capacity to shift from the operation to producing content. Maybe next time!
@@WoodsTreeFarm oh i understand! i saw some of your pics online though. definitely similar vibe to what ill be shooting for our at coming you-pick. thanks for providing great info.
Hey Phil, thanks for sharing that information. Just a thought, have you considered growing pumpkins to transition from the flowers to pumpkins to Christmas trees? That would continue your exposure along with your fire wood business!
we tried pumpkins 2 years ago and it was a big failure and we haven't revisited the idea. There are several big pumpkin patches in the area we'd have to compete with, and we're so focused on tree planting prep and getting ready for Christmas that I think it would be hard mentally to focus on doing a big Fall business - especially since we're still doing work outside the farm. It might be a different story if we were full-time farmers.
Have you thought about stocking your pond with fish, and having a coin operated fish food dispenser that kids could enjoy? Possibly one day building dock out over part of pond for them to walk out on? Also for fall, having anytime your open a hay wagon ready to take people completely around the farm to see. You could charge a fee to cover fuel. That way they see all you have to offer but don't have to hike two miles to see it..the Christmas trees, flowers, kids games area, etc?
Great ideas thanks! There's already good fishing in the pond, though we've never tried to feed them. We'd have to do some work to improve water quality because its murky and you couldn't see the fish you're feeding. I've definitely thought about building some kind of dock or something - partially because we have so much vegetative growth around the pond its hard to fish. We've done hayrides in the past but it was difficult to staff/plan for. None of our past events were busy enough to justify paying extra help. Now that we're growing, we can revisit that. The only other thing I didn't like about doing hayrides was if the ground was wet at all, it really tore things up.
Its a 1.5 full circle sprinkler. It does 40-80ft circle depending on a number of factors including if I'm running multiple at once, and which pump I'm using. Here are a few other videos of it in action with different configurations. I definitely recommend getting a higher pressure pump, not a trash pump to run it. th-cam.com/video/2VIO10djh70/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/-q_VjNuacwY/w-d-xo.html ... here are product links to the pumps and sprinklers we use: the pacer pump is amzn.to/2U5H2h0 the trash pump: amzn.to/3xTOGcZ and the sprinkler: amzn.to/3oRI0ZP
I've never looked into flowers for picking. Just sunflowers for photo shoots and decoration around our pumpkin patch. I like the way you priced the flowers with the cups and buckets. Do the customers keep the bigger buckets? You've got a lot of great ideas and information here. Thanks for the video.
Hey David! Glad you found the video helpful. Yes, we let people take the buckets. The white medium buckets we got a case of 200 for about $200 delivered. The gray 5qt buckets came from Lowes were something like $3.69 each. I think I bought 8 for our first day open and we sold out, so we let people get 2 white buckets for the same price. I bought 6 more for our 2nd day open and we sold 5of6. The $25 bucket was clearly the best seller. I'd like to find a bulk source for the 5qt buckets but don't need 200 haha.
@@jamesbates4282 Thanks for coming to see us and for the kind words. If you came the weekend after Thanksgiving, I probably didn't catch you in the blur of activity. I think it's almost worth the trip just to watch the semi-controlled chaos when it's busy. Come see us for a pumpkin when I have time to chat. Merry Christmas! -Daniken Tree Farm.
@@daviddaniken7248 We always come the day after Thanksgiving and our tree still looks fantastic in the living room. My compliments to you and all who contributed to crazy days like those. We hope to do something similar someday, but not in a competitive location of course!
Thanks! I learned a lot!
Thanks much for sharing your knowledge!
Glad it was helpful!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE VIDEO
Great, easy flowing video. Moving the flower patch is a great plan!
Thanks a lot. I just filmed a recap of this season, with the primary patch in the new location, and will publish that sometime this week
The flowers are so pretty. Moving the flower patch for the flower pickers is a good idea. The property looks great and has really spread out over the years. Nicely done.
Thanks for the helpful info. Hoping to do something like this soon here in Michigan, great tips. Hope this next season is great for you. Another idea for flower fest is to have live music from local clubs
thanks for the idea. appreciate you watching.
You will get there Phil. Just keep learning and improving. You're doing quite well.
Thanks Dan, as always, for your support.
Diversification is key and you have that with all your different events and avenues for revenue. Wish I was able to help physically. Hope some of my ideas are helping you grow from what I learned and share with you. Before you know it those trees will be a great addition to that income. Just keep planting more every year so you have a succession of years to sell. By the time your trees are ready with all your activity and promotion of your trees with those activities you many sell all of them in one year with all your exposure and waiting by people for that year. Just my thoughts. Don't ever get discouraged. Yes it is a lot if work but every bit of income and exposure of all you have to offer will pay off. Keep up the good work. You will get all your ducks in a row and when you do make sure you can continue with new growth for many years to come. All this time and hard work will pay off. Stay focused and I wish I was down the road from you I would love to help you.
Well done. Shrewd and smart.
thanks Kurt. Constantly learning
Excellent information! I would love to see some footage of your events. Thanks for sharing!
Sorry, I didn't get any footage. We were just too busy running the event. The thought crossed my mind, but I just didn't find the mental capacity to shift from the operation to producing content. Maybe next time!
@@WoodsTreeFarm oh i understand! i saw some of your pics online though. definitely similar vibe to what ill be shooting for our at coming you-pick. thanks for providing great info.
Hey Phil, thanks for sharing that information. Just a thought, have you considered growing pumpkins to transition from the flowers to pumpkins to Christmas trees? That would continue your exposure along with your fire wood business!
we tried pumpkins 2 years ago and it was a big failure and we haven't revisited the idea. There are several big pumpkin patches in the area we'd have to compete with, and we're so focused on tree planting prep and getting ready for Christmas that I think it would be hard mentally to focus on doing a big Fall business - especially since we're still doing work outside the farm. It might be a different story if we were full-time farmers.
There's too many pumpkin farmers around here too.
Thanks so much for the details! Great content. Might borrow some of your ideas!
Have you thought about stocking your pond with fish, and having a coin operated fish food dispenser that kids could enjoy? Possibly one day building dock out over part of pond for them to walk out on?
Also for fall, having anytime your open a hay wagon ready to take people completely around the farm to see. You could charge a fee to cover fuel. That way they see all you have to offer but don't have to hike two miles to see it..the Christmas trees, flowers, kids games area, etc?
Great ideas thanks! There's already good fishing in the pond, though we've never tried to feed them. We'd have to do some work to improve water quality because its murky and you couldn't see the fish you're feeding. I've definitely thought about building some kind of dock or something - partially because we have so much vegetative growth around the pond its hard to fish. We've done hayrides in the past but it was difficult to staff/plan for. None of our past events were busy enough to justify paying extra help. Now that we're growing, we can revisit that. The only other thing I didn't like about doing hayrides was if the ground was wet at all, it really tore things up.
Hey Phil, can you tell me a little but about the sprinkler you chose? Size, coverage area, etc?
Its a 1.5 full circle sprinkler. It does 40-80ft circle depending on a number of factors including if I'm running multiple at once, and which pump I'm using. Here are a few other videos of it in action with different configurations. I definitely recommend getting a higher pressure pump, not a trash pump to run it. th-cam.com/video/2VIO10djh70/w-d-xo.html and th-cam.com/video/-q_VjNuacwY/w-d-xo.html ... here are product links to the pumps and sprinklers we use: the pacer pump is amzn.to/2U5H2h0 the trash pump: amzn.to/3xTOGcZ and the sprinkler: amzn.to/3oRI0ZP
I've never looked into flowers for picking. Just sunflowers for photo shoots and decoration around our pumpkin patch. I like the way you priced the flowers with the cups and buckets. Do the customers keep the bigger buckets? You've got a lot of great ideas and information here. Thanks for the video.
Hey David! Glad you found the video helpful. Yes, we let people take the buckets. The white medium buckets we got a case of 200 for about $200 delivered. The gray 5qt buckets came from Lowes were something like $3.69 each. I think I bought 8 for our first day open and we sold out, so we let people get 2 white buckets for the same price. I bought 6 more for our 2nd day open and we sold 5of6. The $25 bucket was clearly the best seller. I'd like to find a bulk source for the 5qt buckets but don't need 200 haha.
David, if you are who I think you are, we absolutely love your farm and visit every year. Keep up the great work!
@@jamesbates4282 Thanks for coming to see us and for the kind words. If you came the weekend after Thanksgiving, I probably didn't catch you in the blur of activity. I think it's almost worth the trip just to watch the semi-controlled chaos when it's busy. Come see us for a pumpkin when I have time to chat. Merry Christmas! -Daniken Tree Farm.
@@daviddaniken7248 We always come the day after Thanksgiving and our tree still looks fantastic in the living room. My compliments to you and all who contributed to crazy days like those. We hope to do something similar someday, but not in a competitive location of course!
Do you do any kind of waiver for people coming onto your property? In case someone gets hurt or injured. So you are not responsible?
Did you do pre- payment or admission at the gate?
Admission plus cost for picking
How many people does it take to run a you pick day ?
We've done it with just me and my wife, but ideally we'd have at least 2 more on busy days.
I would work your flower farm in exchange for a place to live!
How many people did it take to handle flowerfest?
last year was just my wife and kids. We'll probably try to go a smidge bigger this year and hire 1 or 2 temporary workers.