Twin Valley Evergreens is based in Gaines PA, however we offer a full range of landscaping services such as seeding, and tree planting in most of the Pennsylvania and New York state ares. Most of the work i have done so far has been in various parts of Pennsylvania. On one such job i repaired and finished a tree planting job at the Muncy PA wastewater treatment plant after the original landscape contractor went bankrupt and unfortunately lost his buisiness. This job entailed the removal of 45 dead evergreens and their replacement along with the planting of the remainder of the trees as specified by the job. We dug the trees for the job one day before we started the planting on site. We use the same equipment to plant the trees as we do to remove them. This helps the survival and it also makes it much faster and easier to plant the trees. Generally we set the digging spade that we use one size higher than the size of root ball that we dug. This leaves us a small space around the tree, usually less than two inches, that we fill with dirt and than pack securely around the root ball. Planting the trees in this manner helps with the survival rate and usually insures that staking is not neccesarry. It is a good idea to stay away from staking if at all possible. Any item that touches the tree is a potential threat to the survival and growth of the tree. This particular job was a fairly easy straightforward one. We removed the trees, knocked the dirt off the root ball for reuse and put the tree in the existing hole. Very little shoveling of the hole was required and since the original contractor had used a backhoe attachment for his skidsteer the ground was of medium resistance. We managed to pull and replant the trees plus the additional one needed in just two days. The second day i was there by myself till around noon when my brother got there with the rest of the trees for the job. All in all not bad for two guys planting 48 trees.
Another one of my jobs i wish to mention was in Mansfield PA. I and my brother dug 117 trees for Seneca Resources off of land they were clearing for new offices and replanted them on a well pad for the owner of the property the pad was on. This job consisted of a variety of evergreens and a variety of sizes as well. The trees were located on their proprty near Liberty PA. We then replanted them in Covington pa which is just a couple miles south of Mansfield PA. This particular job was a bit more complex seeing as how the landowner was fairly specific about the planting. Another issue was a spring that came up off to the side of the well pad which made for sloppy and soft soils to plant in on the one corner of the site. In this instance we had to put steel tracks on the skidsteer to help it float over the soft ground better. We managed to have the trees all dug within one and a half days, however it was a couple of days later till we could plant them due to a dispute with the landowner. Once all issues had been resolved we managed to get the job done in slightly over a day. This was the first tree removal job i had ever done for someone and dispite the landowner issues it went really well. Hoping to get more tree removal or relocation jobs in the future. This last year i performed another tree planting job on another well site for Seneca Resources. This job ultimately consisted of planting sixty three evergreens and a variety of seedlings of various types for the wildlife. This job was done in Covington PA also. This was a bit trickier however seeing that fifteen of the trees had to be planted down over the side of a bank. We were unable to get the machine into the area these trees had to be planted so we had to plant them by hand. Shovels and picks were our best friends that day. A pair of really good gloves is an essential tool by the way. Our hands were feeling it the next day. The soil was rocky so it was hard digging threw most of it. once we got the trees set we put plastic retainer rings around them to hold the mulch in place. It was a pretty steep hill. The tree on the well pad weren't much easier unfortunately. Once we got down about 16 inches we hit the stone they had used to make the pad. We had to dig about an other six inches with digging bars as we hadnt brought an attachment we have that would have been able to dig out the stone. This job went well despite the difficulties it presented. We managed to finish this job in under three days total.