Plants for sale Steve and Darla Gilbertson, with some of the potted plants they are offering for sale at Gilby's Orchard, located in Moran Township, just about one mile Staples World photo by Tom Crawford west of Don and Dave's Store and west of County Road 21. Beginning this fall, they expect to have a U-pick apple crop available to the public. Anyone looking for a good place to purchase (or pick) some apples this fall won't have to travel to Bayfi eld, Wisc., or other exotic places to find their favorite variety.

They will be available right here, at Gilby's Orchard in Moran Township. Steve and Darla Gilbertson purchased the former Lenk farm just west of Don and Dave's Store five years ago. They have been planting trees and raising registered Angus cattle on the place ever since, and this spring have opened a tree and shrub nursery business on their farm as well.

This spring, he's planting close to 1,000 more apple trees, with varieties including Honey Crisp, Snowsweet, Sweet 16, Zestar, Whitney Crab

and a Jumbo Banner. "That last one is the world's

Staples World photo by Tom Crawford Apple expert Steve Gilbertson protects his young apple trees from damage with a variety of devices. This tree is staked for wind damage, painted white to protect from sun scald in the winter and wapped with a protective sheath to keep mice and other rodents from chewing on the tree's stem. Those are just some of the tasks involved in starting an orchard in Minnesota. largest apple," Steve said one morning last week on the farm. The Gilbertson's have already planted over 1,200 apple trees in the past three years.

In addition to the apple trees, they will have both bare root and potted trees for sale. Their nursery stock will include both hard and softwood varieties. They will have black walnut, dogwood, red oak, red maple and sugar maple hardwood trees on hand. In addition, Steve and Darla have a variety of Colorado blue spruce, Norway pine and Black Hills spruce available for sale.

They converted the old dairy barn on the Lenk place into a cold storage area for their trees, with bare root trees stored in there until they are ready to sell or to place in pots. "It's just an ordinary dairy barn," Steve said, but the cool

cement floors and darkened area make the barn ideal for storing his trees.

Also available as nursery stock will be bare root evergreens and hardwoods, shrubs such as lilacs, dogwood, astor and Nanking cherry. They will also have high bush cranberry and hazel nut on hand.

He and Darla were in the process, earlier this month, of potting more of their bare root stock. He has prepared a sales area at the top of his long driveway. There he will have areas marked for different types of trees, shrubs and other items for sale, such as plastic pipe, tree stakes, mulch and compost.

Gilby's will not be stocking any arborvitae shrubs, Steve said, acknowledging a personal distaste for that species.

If the name sounds familiar, it's possibly because there is another Gilby's Orchard near McGregor, where Steve worked for seven years with his brother, David, learning the tricks of the trade. Steve has also lived in the Hasting and Farmington areas, and had a previous farm near Pierz. But he kept looking for the right place until a realtor took him around the Lenk place.

"I had told them I wanted a place with a long driveway, and this was just what I wanted," he said.

The long driveway and an old log cabin back behind the barn were the two keys to the Gilbertson's purchasing the farm.

He will be trying many apple varieties, new ones not quite on the market. He has one such variety already growing. Sweet Tango is about the newest one out of the University of Minnesota. It is a cross between Zestar and Honeycrisp and definitely bred for Minnesota's climate.

"My oldest trees are three years old," Steve said, explaining that you don't want the trees to develop apples until they have reached that age.

Steve has learned the tricks of protecting his trees from deer, rodents and winter weather. He wraps the trees to stop rodent damage and paints them to protect from sun scald. And he has Blossom, a year-old Pyrenees, to protect them from deer.

One thing Steve likes to point out is he uses all organic fertilizers and organic pest and weed control.

Someday, he expects Gilby's Orchard of rural Browerville to be the biggest orchard in central Minnesota. He expects to have over 10,000 trees planted eventually and have both a U-pick and commercial orchard.