The ground has thawed and is being seeded, and fruit trees are budding in the Shuswap region.

Just off Highway 1, at the top of the hill in Salmon Arm, B.C., the DeMille orchard is more than a week ahead of schedule compared to last year.

“I think all the tree fruits, including the cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, apples are all going to be in amazing shape this year,” said Brad DeMille, chief executive officer of DeMille’s Farm Market & Orchard.

He added he is cautious about how the lack of snow will impact the soil’s moisture content this summer, particularly since the orchard does not irrigate.

DeMille said this year’s mild weather allowed his team to prune the orchard’s trees through the winter, which was a big advantage.

When the DeMille family expanded its operation and purchased the orchard three years ago, the trees were overgrown and many were in rough shape, he said.

“We knew it was a three-year project to bring the apples back,” said DeMille.

Since then, his team has been dedicated to pruning and has removed about 150 dump trucks worth of wood from the orchard.

“It’s been quite a remarkable recovery,” he said.

His team will finish pruning the orchard and will plant seeds — including in their pumpkin and sunflower patches — in a few weeks, once the risk of frost has passed.

He said they will also be spreading aged manure to fertilize their soil – and it will not be as smelly as last year.

At Wild Flight Farm in Mara, B.C., things are bustling, both above and below ground.

Farm machinery can be heard from down the road and farm workers are busy, but Juan Paez, who operates the farm with his wife Helen, said it’s what can’t be seen that is actually the most important.

“Right now, the soil microbial activity has started, and that kickstarts everything else,” said Paez.

On an organic farm like Wild Flight, soil health is of the utmost importance and it is managed as a living organism, said Paez.

Even though temperatures are still expected to flirt with freezing for a few more weeks, Paez and his team have begun to prepare soil for the nursery and are planting seeds in hoop houses under a fabric cover, which acts like a blanket to protect the seedlings from frost damage.

Wild Flight Farm staff also just finished harvesting and bagging the last of its winter produce, which is grown on site in greenhouses.

Paez said the next few weeks will be very busy.

“Everything is going to start full-fledged,” he said.

“We will continue seeding. After two more weeks, we will be weeding and seeding more. And then we will start preparing the open field, and then we will move to the actual field and start farming.”