Bob Ruhl has learned a lot about growing Christmas trees since he planted his first fir in 1985.

Instead of trimming trees in the heat of the summer, he waits until fall. Not only is the weather better for outside work, but snipping a tree into the perfect shape also gets him into the Christmas spirit.

"Today's my day to start getting the barn decorated and trim some of those blue spruce," he said Nov. 20, one week before he was to open Ruhl's Tree Farm on Jarrettsville Pike in Phoenix.

Although Ruhl likes to do much of the trimming himself, he hired Lee Single, of Edgewood, to work one day a week year-round. Single mows and weeds in and around about 5,000 trees during the summer and helps customers buy and load up their trees in December.

Ruhl started selling trees in 1992, the same year he retired from the Maryland National Guard. He said it takes seven to 10 years for a tree to reach the right height. He planted 1,500 trees by hand in 1985 and plants more each year.

He sells 1,000 trees in a good year. Ruhl's Tree Farm has been closed only once since 1992.

"We had a good year in 2006 and sold a lot of trees," he said. "By the next year, what we had in the fields just weren't big enough, so I didn't open," he said.

Ruhl said people who had made the annual trek to his farm still showed up, and he ended up selling several dozen small trees.

"If I ever get out of this business, it'll be because of the deer," Ruhl said. "They tear up 40 trees a year by rubbing so hard against them. When it snows, they eat the tops off the little trees. But there's nothing I can do about them."

Another tree farm that has been in business for years is owned by another Bob. Mt. Carmel Tree Farm on Mount Carmel Road, in Parkton, was purchased by Bob Curreri in 1984. It has been a tree farm since 1971.

Like Ruhl, Curreri plants a new crop of trees each year and hopes there is enough rain to keep the seedlings alive. Neither farm has an irrigation system.

For the past five years, Ruby Gover, of Hampstead, has been Curreri's farmhand. She trims the trees and has helped plant about 3,000 trees each year on the 66-acre property.

She spent Nov. 20 preparing the gift shop, where customers can buy homemade wreaths, swags, holly and centerpieces, as well as gift items such as candles, Santa Claus figurines and small sleighs filled with fresh greens.

"We like to have inexpensive things so the kids can buy something," she said. "There's a lot to do to get ready for next weekend, but it's nice to see the families come here and have fun and go home with a nice tree."

Pam and Louis Grue, of Bel Air, are already planning their trip to Mt. Carmel Tree Farm. They have been traveling to Parkton for a Christmas tree ever since their children, now 27, 28, 29 and 30, were youngsters in snowsuits.

"Bob is such a good guy and is so kind. It's nice to see him each year," Pam Grue said. "This year we'll all go and everybody'll get a tree. Then we'll go back to our house, decorate our tree and have dinner together. Going there is our family tradition."

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