HADLEY, Massachusetts – John Kinchla, owner of Amherst Nurseries, said it has been a good year for the Hadley-based nursery after his crop field suffered damage from both freezing temperatures and rainfall in 2023.

“It’s been a good, stable year,” Kinchla said. “That’s what I’m looking for, a stable year. You have to deal with the ups and downs, but a nice, stable year like this is a good year.”

The farm has been based in Hampshire for more than 20 years and grows trees that are planted by landscapers and contractors along roadsides in towns and cities, as well as in confined areas such as behind power lines.

According to Kinchla, the farm suffered damage particularly from frost in February and later in May.

“Seventy-two hours of very, very cold weather,” he said. “And then it got quite mild. It was up and down, and then we had the late frost in May that hit us. We lost trees that had already started to leaf out, and once the leaves are out they’re vulnerable to the frost, and they died when the frost came.”

Kinchla said summer rains destroyed most of his recent crops.

“We didn’t get flooded, but two of our fields of newly planted evergreens were so flooded that the roots were deprived of oxygen and died,” he said. “And the weeds became really hard to control because we couldn’t get out into the field and work on it.”

Kinchla said it was a huge financial loss.

He said he was able to get funding from the state’s Farm Resiliency Fund, which was a big help.

Kinchla is now preparing for the next harvest in the fall and hopes that the weather continues to cooperate and the farm can have a successful rest of the year.

“I would say we’re just staying the course and trying to give them the varieties and species they’re looking for,” he said. “And hopefully we can do the same thing next year.”