A Christmas tree grower in Bothwell, Ont., is expecting thousands of visitors to his farm over the weekend as families from across southwestern Ontario go searching for the perfect tree.

Sloan's Christmas Tree Village, in Bothwell, in southwestern Ontario, grows fir, spruce and pine trees on more than 200 hectares. (Sloan's Christmas Tree Village)About 7,000 people are expected at Sloan's Christmas Tree Village, about 37 kilometres east of Chatham, John Sloan, its owner, told CBC News on Friday morning.

Many will buy one of the 4,500 fir, spruce or pine trees that Sloan expects to sell in 2009 at $40 each.

The vast majority, he said, will come for the activities, which include a maze, horse and wagon rides, as well as campfires.

"We're a little bit stressed," Sloan acknowledged. "It takes so much planning and work to take care of so many people."

So Sloan and his workers have been sprucing up their farm in recent weeks, adding washrooms, taking care of safety issues, and finding ways to avoid long lineups.

'It's a lot of work': owner

As for the trees — which are grown on 200 hectares — that's a year-round job.

"Every tree has to be fertilized three times a year, and a lot of that's done manually because we can't get into the tree patch with equipment," Sloan explained.

Workers also have to spray the fields for weeds three times a year, remove cones from Fraser fir, and trim each and every tree, he said. Fields are fertilized in March and planted in April, while the trimming begins in June and July.

"You don't just plant a seed in the ground and come back 10 years later and hope for something," Sloan said. "It's a lot of work."

Sloan's family began growing Christmas trees for wholesale in 1959. They branched out 10 years later into the "cut-your-own-tree" business and added the village component in 1991.

"I was just a baby when my dad started, and my son-in-law is taking over," Sloan said. "So we're going third generation."