Swindle family loves tree farming in Highlands County
By Linda Carney

Sebring - Ray Swindle and his son Jimmy have been operating a successful tree farm in Highlands County for the past 12 years.

“We sort of stumbled into the business,” Ray said. At his sprawling 147-acre farm on West Josephine Road.

The Swindles use to own acreage and a home in Big Cypress in the Everglades.  But Interstate 75 was built through the area, and the state took their property off their hands.  After that the Swindles were looking for a get away place to escape the hustle and bustle of life in Fort Lauderdale.

“We were looking for about five acres and then we saw this place, and they made us an offer we couldn’t refuse, “Ray said.

The best part of the deal was that the property included a 12-inch well 1,300 feet. Deep.

“We got the land for a price that was as cheep as it would have cost to dig a well that size alone,” Ray said.

Inexpensive access to water is important to start a successful tree farm business.

Ray’s Tree Farm sells trees to 10 different states including Florida, Virginia, North Carolina South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.

The most common tree found on the Swindle’s farm is the wax myrtle.  The botanical name is Myrica cerifera.

Native to Highlands County, wax myrtle is considered a nuisance tree by the county’s farmers and ranchers, but it is popular elsewhere.

“Wax myrtles don’t require much water, bugs don’t eat them, and they provide good landscaping and good buffer zones.” Jimmy said.

“They are low maintenance.  You don’t have to trim them, people by them to place along highways, and on golf courses, “ Jimmy added.

“No place in the country do they grow in Highlands County”, Jimmy said.

“So much of our landscaping has been devoted to native plants and about 60 percent of our crop is native plants,” Ray said.
A six-foot wax myrtle takes about two years to grow from seed and sells for about $30.

“We have about 50,000 wax myrtles here, I think we sell more then anybody else around here, “ Ray said.

The Swindles also grow live oaks, Indian Hawthorne and evergreen giant liriope, a type of ground cover grass.

“We sell a lot of trees from early spring to late summer,” Ray said.

The trees are grown in plastic    liners that resemble egg cartons end the sections are perforated so one tree can easily pulled out of a liner.

The container trees come in sizes from 3 gallons to 45 gallons.  They also sell them B & B - which stands for burlap and ball.

“When the trees get about two inches tall we put them in three gallon containers and when they get bigger then that we putt them in seven or fifteen gallon containers or plant them in the field, “ Jimmy said.  We dig them out of the field and start selling hem when they are about 10 inches tall all the way up to sis feet tall.”

The Swindles use Osmacote, a time-released fertilizer.

“It cost twice as much as regular fertilizer, but the results are great and we don’t have to fertilize as much,” Ray said.

The past 11 years the Swindles had other people running their tree farm.  Last August, they took over the operations themselves.

The basic stall of seven employees includes their operations manager, Jack Ward, who has worked for them 10 years and lives on the property.  During the busy season, their work crew expands to as many as 30.

Ray said that this is the best year he’s ever had in the tree farm business but it wasn’t easy to get started.  But the tree farm business has broadened.  The Memphis Zoo in Memphis, Tenn., recently placed and order for 600 wax myrtles.

“Its not cheep to get your first crop, but once you get your first crop you have to invest the money earned into the next crop,” Ray said.

Jimmy handles the transportation for the company within the state of Florida.  He is an offshore sand driller part time in Fort Lauderdale.

The Swindles spend a few days per week on the tree farm and the remaining time in their Fort Lauderdale home.

The Swindles use commercial truckers to transport their inventory to states outside of Florida.

“We sell trees by the truck load but if anybody wants to buy a tree, we’ll sell it to them,” Ray said.

The swindles say Highlands County has been good to them.

Ray said that Highlands County is a great place to have a tree farm because the government doesn’t burden the farmers with excessive zoning, compliance or tax issues and doesn’t interfere with their operations.