He even had to re-home the sheepdog, as it missed working with sheep.    However the decision was necessary in order to produce quality trees and make running the farm a viable proposition. So today the farm is growing over 500,000 trees and supplying them to families, Councils, Garden Centres and Businesses all over Wales and beyond.

New Arrivals

Having decided to sell the sheep and cattle on the farm, the farm fell quiet, apart from the abundance of wildlife. Robert, like the generation of family before him, was used to working with or being around animals, so he decided to purchase two Reindeer to go with his farm and plantations of Christmas Trees. The Reindeers have 20 acres in which they roam freely and feed on their native moss, which is their favourite food and on which they thrive. Robert is extremely passionate about the care, welfare and upbringing of the Reindeer and presently owns a herd of over 30 Reindeer. “They are with us 365 days a year and we wouldn’t be parted from any of them.”

Something Special, Something New

Well, we realised that Gower Fresh Christmas Trees, and the Reindeer were missing someone special, so the natural progression was to include ‘Father Christmas.’ Robert had a plan to built a grotto. He started with a small wooden shed housed within the old Lambing Shed, where ‘Santa’ was only present for a few hours a day. However he has since converted the entire lambing shed into a huge indoor Winter Wonderland complex, complete with animatronics, falling snow, frozen singers, elves, the reindeer, many Christmas scenes and finally Santa’s Cabin. This has proved a great attraction and can complete a child’s (and an adults) Christmas. Although Robert argues that it takes almost as much effort as growing and nurturing the Christmas Trees as it does to create the magic of the grotto each year, in the end it is well worth it when he sees the faces and reactions of the children together with their families, enjoying Christmas.

Present Day Glory

Robert has now gone from his initial inexperience in planting that first tree so many years ago, to where he is today.
In October 2017 he won the British Christmas Tree Growers competition for ‘Champion Grower of 2017.’ This award is basically the ‘Oscars’ for Christmas Trees, where the winner has the honour of supplying the Prime Minister’s Christmas Tree to stand proud at the official entrance to ‘10 Downing Street’ which he succeeded in doing. Robert was also invited to visit ‘Number 10’ in December 2017, where he met Theresa May and they discussed Christmas Trees rather than Brexit. All in all it was a great day and an accolade for Gower Fresh Christmas Trees, Robert, the family and all who have and still are giving their continued help, support and hard work to achieve it.