DIG AND SELL NATIVE TREES

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And that, friends, pretty much sums up the whole operation! Except, of course, for the financial end of things.

CAN YOU DIG IT?

The above diagrams should make the "chip-chop" digging method easy for anyone to understand. The shovel is first used with its "back" toward the tree (Fig. 1). This "chip" stroke—made at a deep angle—loosens one side of the piece of earth. Then—when the spade is turned around 180 degrees (so that the face of the blade is toward the tree)—the "chop" stroke (Fig. 2) allows you to lift out a narrow wedge of soil as shown in Fig. 3. This pattern should be followed while digging a trench all the way around the tree ... and—when the ditch is complete—the same method can be used to angle in and remove the earth from beneath the necessary portion of the root structure, as shown in Fig. 4.

NAME YOUR PRICE

The prices that your trees bring will vary—widely—depending upon species, trunk diameter, availability . . . and greed.

I've found that a three-inch tree (sometimes up to 18 feet tall) can be easily sold for $18.50 plus a $4.00 "planting fee". (Professional landscape contractors may charge $50 to $100 for a comparable sapling, but that—at least to my way of thinking—doesn't seem very fair to one's fellowman or-woman.)

Just consider: One person can dig and ball, say, six trees in a morning ... if they're located in an easily accessible area. Then, that same person can turn around and sell and plant them during the afternoon and evening. You figure it out!

And selling the trees is usually fun! Suburban tracts, it seems, are especially in need of natural beauty. Just paint "Trees" on the side of your truck and drive up and down the street, smile, and knock on doors. Retail nurseries are also good markets, and you can put ads in the local newspapers, visit real estate agents and builders, or even try a penciled spiel on restroom walls! Whatever you do, you'll find that tree buyers are definitely around.

And there you have it... tree digging is good, honest work that can benefit the lives of others and bankroll your own desires and dreams.

So, dear friends, before you begin to fold up the tents and clean out the cages of those ideas for a dome, a solar collector, or a pukka outhouse ... consider trees. They might provide just the financial answer you need. Dig?

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