The Orangery

A year ago, I wrote an editorial on apples. In it I said, "Our kitchen table always has a large fruit bowl full of fresh fruit, for most of the year, from our own fruit trees. We have a score or more different types of fruit. We have an orangery with many kind of oranges, limes and lemons and the slope they are on, the depth of the mulch and the constant drip irrigation means heavily laden cops for most of the year for the citrus trees." A reader rang me about the orangery, a word she had not heard before. I answered her, but felt others might be interested in the same topic especially as this is the time of year to care for your citrus trees. We have an area of land about twenty-five metres in length and ten metres in width, running north and south so the eastern side gets all the morning sun and the Western side the afternoon sun. We have planted our dozen citrus trees on this sloping bank which assures good drainage. The earliest trees we planted are now twenty years old, and each is the size of a bedroom and is laden with fruit. There will be two crops growing simultaneously and we will be picking ripe fruit every day for about nine months. We call this area the orangery, the traditional name for a garden of citrus trees. In England, no respectable country house is without its orangery. Mostly they are framed buildings covered with glass similar to a conservatory close by the house. The citrus trees are usually grown in large tubs not in the ground. But many are growing in the ground surrounded by a brick wall about two metres high. This is to create a suntrap "“ a microclimate in England-s cold climate. The walls keep the frosts away from the plants, and radiate the warmth of the sun which falls upon them. Most of them were built in the 18th and 19th centuries. William III of Orange is believed to have popularized the use of orangeries and many royals added one to their palaces and large estates. But we have many earlier examples in Italy and France back to Roman times. In our orangery we grow Valencias, navels, mandarins, limes, and a couple of types of lemons, especially Eureka. Other people also grow grapefruit and tangelos. "˜Valencia- oranges grow well any where in NSW. It is a seedless variety ripening in mid-September. It has sweet juice. Much of the world-s orange crops are "˜Valencias-. Washington Navel produces its fruit in about June and makes fine eating. Australia produces 600,000 tonnes of citrus fruit annually, mostly oranges. Today, there are about 2800 growers, but the number is fewer every year especially among growers dependent upon irrigation in this long period of drought. A reliable water supply is absolutely essential. The Riverland in South Australia, the Riverina in NSW and the Central Burnett region in Queensland are the main areas for citrus cropping. The Central Coast of NSW is also a smaller growing area, as are the broad acreage farms around Burke and South Eastern Queensland. In NSW Parliament two of us take a particular interest in citrus production. The Hon. Tony Catanzariti owns a well-respected business in the Riverina, based upon plantings of his father. The other person is myself. In 1979 when I began as Superintendent at Wesley Mission, I had to make an important decision. Mr. Harold W. Cottee, with his wife Lois, had been tremendous supporters of the Methodist Department of Overseas Mission and the Central Methodist Mission. Together they had founded the famous Australian company Cottee Jams and cordials. Mr Cottee had given his names to drinks and jams that had successfully been sold across the nation and become a part of most Australians- daily food intake. He left in his Will an orchard at Paringa in South Australia consisting of 500 acres and 80,000 trees. The orchard was plagued with problems including lack of water, poor management, root rot and leaf curl. But his highly competent and experienced son Harold S. Cottee indicated that if Wesley Mission were prepared to own the orchard and operate it with the funds going to the Dalmar Children-s Home he would give continuing oversight and care to the running of the orchard. Harold S. Cottee-s willingness to do this in memory of his father was the most God-sent blessing in the history of the Dalmar Children-s Homes. My task as Chief Executive was to decide if running such a large citrus production centre could be regarded as part of our core business with the risks and costs involved. I decided it was not our core business but could help fund our core business. So we set up a separate not-for-profit company with a group of Wesley businessmen who had experience in marketing and distribution which would insulate losses from the Mission. We would also help with an infusion of funds from Wesley Mission to pay $120,000 of debt, would run the company competently, would use innovative methods to clear the problem of root rot and leaf curl and unreliable water supply, and then sell citrus fruit with all the profits going to aid needy Sydney children. As Chief Executive of Wesley Mission, my task was to see that area of profit generation along with a number of other ventures I started in furniture manufacture, office cleaning, laundry services, investment services, private hospitals, employment provision and vocational job training and the like were all profitable allowing Wesley Mission to grow to become one of Australia-s largest providers of community services. But the work of Cottee Orchard lay very dear to my heart, and I loved time spent with our management staff on the property. That work continues to this day. Millions of dollars have come to Wesley Mission over the past thirty years since I made that decision to move into citrus production. God continued not to change muddy river water into wine, but also into sparkling orange juice. Like all senior executives I had to keep my eyes on the markets, the international competition, the changing Government policies, the opportunities for export and so on. The other thing that helped me, was that for some years I conducted a segment in my Sunday night four-hour radio program on 2GB, where I had the head of Yates Garden Seeds as a regular guest handling listeners- garden questions. I learnt a lot during those programs. It is absolutely enjoyable to walk round your garden after dinner at night, to pick and eat a fresh fruit from your own tree. Which brings me to this week. Now is the time to feed your citrus with a couple of cupfuls a good fruit and citrus food, such as Yates Gro-Plus Citrus Food (naturally!). Spread it over the drip line on the outer edge of the branches where the drips from foliage would fall. This is where the growing roots are. I remember an Israeli agronomist telling me when we became the first commercial orchard to change to trickle drip irrigation to reduce the amount of water we had to pump from the Murray for our sprinkler system, that we had to only drip on one square foot of drip line to water an entire tree. Water in thoroughly. Give each tree some chicken manure sometime next summer. One final thought. We mulch all of our leaves, cuttings, food scraps, lawn clippings and shredded parliamentary papers which I first scatter about the chook house to collect their waste, and then pile it thickly under all of our trees. That conserves the water, improves the soil, encourages worms, and gradually breaks down as good humus. Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C. Friday, 27th March, 2009, 9:33 am | Editorials