Our first citrus patch: going to plan, or to ruin?

Posted on May 13, 2018 Updated on May 12, 2018

I could hear my neighbours thinking, when I proudly showed off our first citrus patch:

“This is what he’s been blogging about?!? What a mess! He must be mad!”

I can understand why they think that. The mainstream advice for an orchard, described in the most recent Gardening Australia magazine, is: “space the trees widely enough apart that you can easily mow between them”.

This isn’t what we’ve done. Instead, we’ve been creating a citrus guild.

To recap: the goal is to plant around the citrus tree with a variety of beneficial plants, bringing nutrient up from the soil, attracting beneficial bugs, and controlling grass (the enemy of all fruiting trees).

This is was my sketch of what it would look like:

But seeing the reality, you can understand why our neighbours are having second thoughts:

The growth has been extraordinary, a testament to the quality of our soil, and the benefits of breaking up compaction from years of horses grazing. Still, it’s hard to even spot the dwarf citruses amongst everything else.

The rapid growth of the bracken ferns has been a surprise, but I think in a good way. Since these ferns are known to act as ‘dynamic accumulators’, bringing up nutrients from the soil, they seem like an ideal groundcover. The grass certainly doesn’t stand a chance against it.

The salvias have pushed through and are flowering profusely. The rue, yarrow and fennel are all flowering to the benefit of beneficial bugs. The comfrey is growing, but is struggling against the bracken ferns, so we’ll see how that goes.

The citrus trees all suffered heavy transplant shock, but I’m hopeful they’ll start to take off in earnest next season, pushing above the ferns. The pomegranate at the centre of the patch also hasn’t thrived, but we have just had the driest summer in 20 years, so I’m hopeful for next year.

Watch this space, and I’ll continue to report on the journey of our edible forest garden patches … to success, or ruin.

(I’ll also post some aerial photos and videos shortly, which will give another perspective on how it’s progressing.)