Christmas comes but once a year, get a tree early
ASSAGAY Valley Christmas tree farmer Peter Smith has no complaints about the recent drought – in fact he has benefitted from the weather conditions which have caused hardship throughout the country.
The baker-turned-tree grower said this week the Umhlatuzana River had kept flowing, providing him with water to irrigate, “… and (the trees) have grown better because they have had more sun.”
As his annual festive season fortnight of income generation for the year began to kick in, he could look over a bumper crop of trees – not that the rest of the year on Chorleywood Farm is idle.
“We spray insecticide around the trees so we have no insect or disease problems. Weeding is a big job and we feed them with our top secret mix of fertiliser twice a year,” said Smith.
Another perk Smith lives with is that the troops of monkeys that descend on the farm are not after his crop of Japanese cedar trees, which end up in family homes over the festive period.
Rather, they go for the litchi and avocado trees that shade the young Christmas trees before they are transplanted to sunnier pastures.
“I have to cage my vegetable garden. The cage costs more than the vegetables.”
Smith was operations director for the Premier Group before retiring to Assagay from Gauteng where his wife, Marylyn, ran a garden service.
His job took him all over Africa, establishing bakeries. One country where his efforts did not bare fruit was Mozambique.
“I couldn’t get things going there. There were just too many hangers-on to the deals, all wanting money.”
The eastern neighbour did, however, provide the Smiths’ East Rand garden service with star employee, Solly Chindza.
He stayed on with them for their move to KwaZulu-Natal in 2001 when they bought Chorleywood Farm and he adapted to working with Christmas trees.
The Smith’s finished product comes in a plastic pot decorated with a stencil painted holly plant, the trees having been grown in the soil with their roots contained in a plastic bag.
“If people water them, they can last six, eight, 10 weeks.”
However, as a wholesaler, Smith provides nurseries and supermarkets, but when delivering to the latter, he cautions them not to place trees near fridges and freezers.
Indoors, there is some certainty about what the conditions will be like, unlike outdoors where Smith has noticed climate change impacting on the weather.
He said his native England was getting warmer, while summer in his adopted KwaZulu-Natal home has been wet rather than hot. And, of course the Umhlatuzana has kept running while other rivers have dried up.