Gilbert Christmas Tree Farm was established in 1983 and we sold our first trees in 1988. We originally started with 84 acres and access from county road 266. In 2002 we acquired the adjoining 143 acres and this gave us access from county road 296 and made our farm 3 miles closer to the Valley area without moving the farm. We thought that was great. In 2004 we build a house on the farm and moved to the Christmas Tree Farm.

In winter of 1983 we planted Viriginia Pine trees and that was the only tree we sold. We were in the East Alabama Christmas Tree Association with around 20 other farms. Today we are the only farm still in operation. We added Leyland Cypress trees in the late 90's and now they represent about 80% of our farm grown tree sales. In 2007 we started hauling in Fraser Fir trees from Scaly Mountain, NC to be able to supply a fresh Fraser Firs to those customers that wanted that type tree. In past years we had been sending those customer to local cut lots. Our Frasers are kept in containers of water to keep them fresh. Growing trees is alot of work and the return is not that good. We have stayed in the business bcause we are small enough to do all the work ourselves and we enjoy the selling season meeting and greeting new customers and established customers that have done business with us since we started.

I am assisted by my wife Joan who started the gift shop (Tree Toppers) in 2007, our daughter, Jennifer, who collects the money and get the customers registered, our son Trey who helps in the field and tree sales during the selling season. Our daughter-in-law, Amy, and son-in-law, Matt, also assist us when their schedules allow during the selling season.

We are members of Southern Christmas Tree Association (SCTA) of which I was president in 2008 and we are members of the National Christmas Tree Association (NCTA). One of our trees was reserve champion in 2008 in the SCTA tree contest and in 2009 we placed third in the NCTA contest in Chattanooga, TN in the other tree catagory. The first place tree in the other catagory was the 2008 grand champion from MS in the 2008 SCTA contest. Second place went to a tree from SC.

For more information contact us at (home) 334 499-4007 or (cell) 706 585-5306.