Yesterday was the first day of spring, the day when the center of the sun crosses the Equator creating a condition where day and night are equal in length. Because I live north of the equator, my daylight hours are already a bit longer than my night hours. The first day of spring for me was closer to the 18th of March. At any rate, we are now moving into the spring and summer season again and the economic engines are moving into a new gear. The agricultural sector in North America will start to kick into high gear again as will many other seasonally affected businesses.

The first day of spring is a good reference point to start planning what you might want to grow this year. Today I put in my order for the following trees and shrubs:

• 25 Honeycrisp Apple Trees (2 yr bare root)
• 10 Empire Apple Trees (1 yr bare root)
• 5 Sweet Sixteen Apple Trees (1 yr bare root)
• 5 Alexander Apple Trees (2 yr bare root)
• 5 William's Pride Apple trees (2 yr bare root)
• 10 Bluecrop Highbush Blueberries (2 yr bare root)
• 10 Patriot Highbush Blueberries (2 yr bare root)
• 1 Twisty Baby Black Locust (150 cm)

I've been purchasing about $1000 worth of apple trees, pear trees, and blueberries for the last 3 years and planting them out on a farm property me and my wife hope to eventually retire to. Some people invest in stocks and bonds for retirement, I invest in apple trees, pear trees, blueberries, and grape vines (there is no cost for grape vine propagation material as I can pick up cuttings for free). So far, my return on investment has been in the negative because I only have expenses and no income to show yet; however, we'll see how these investments perform in the long term.

The term "slow money" is often used to characterize agriculture investing. Often you cannot expect a fast return on an agricultural investment unless you are few steps removed investing in agricultural derivatives of one type or another. I'm content, however, to wait for my investments to mature and bear fruit. In the long run, these "slow money" investments may result in a better return than "fast money" investments in stocks. Angel investors and venture capitals generally like to see a quick return on their investments, but sometimes it is the investor's with patience who come out ahead in the long run. It is also worth considering whether investment diversification can also happen via timing, not just across industries, by making a mixture of "slow money" and "fast money" investments.

To learn more about slow money investing you can go to the slowmoney.org website.