ORANGE BEACH, AL – If a skinny kid with bangs neatly crossing his forehead and an adolescent smile bristling with braces motors up to your dock or rides his bike into your yard and starts talking about citrus trees, you might want to pay attention.
Austin Andrews, 14, has studied the trees Orange Beach is named for and all varieties of citrus. And don’t let the baby face fool you. He is not only an expert, he’s a businessman as well. He can tell you what you need to do to successfully grow citrus trees.
Andrews was invited to speak to the Orange Beach City Council last week and may enter into a contract to adorn city landscaping with citrus.
It all came about when Mayor Tony Kennon and bestselling author Andy Andrews of Orange Beach were talking about citrus trees.
“We got to talking about our desire to re-establish orange tree groves and citrus groves and he had an interest in it and thought that was a great idea,” Kennon told the gathering. “In our discussion he told me that his son Austin was a citrus tree expert. I thought he was kidding. We got to talking and got his paperwork and this young man is a citrus tree expert.”
His business is Sporty Citrus and can be reached at sportycitrus.com.
“I’m interested in citrus and always have been,” Austin told the council and audience. “I’ve seen trees that haven’t grown the way they should and produce the fruit they should or just grow. I turned my hobby of giving people tips on their trees and built it into a business last year. The name is Sporty Citrus.”
As a lifelong resident, Austin said, he loves Orange Beach and wanted to see more of the trees the town is named on the landscape.
“One thing that kind of bothered me about Orange Beach, however, was there are no oranges here,” he said. “That’s where I think I can help.”
Austin said there are ways he sees right now he can help the trees on city property.
“I’d love to help Orange Beach’s citrus in any I can,” he said. “I’ve seen the trees outside this building and at the art center. They’re great trees but they need to be worked on.”
His services can come in the form of yearlong care and maintenance or one-time visits to give owners the instructions they need to make their citrus trees successful.
“What I will do is plant and manage trees under a yearly contract,” he said. “I’ll visit the tree weekly. I can fertilize the tree, I can remove any bad limbs or suckers that grow on it. Do just about anything that a citrus tree needs.
“Or I can do a one-time consultation where I will tell the owner of the citrus tree or the person taking care of it what they can do to make it better or the best it can be.”
While his job involves landscaping, Austin says his services are not what you would get from a typical landscaping company.
“The difference between me and a regular landscaper I just deal with the citrus and give them the specific care that they need,” he said. “A landscaper, with citrus, basically sticks it in the ground and waters it and fertilizes it.”
Kennon and city council members came away impressed by Austin’s presentation and said discussions about entering into a contract for him to start a citrus tree program for the city are upcoming.
“What a great example,” Kennon said, “a 14-year-old businessman with his own business in the city of Orange Beach.”
Other youngsters, Kennon said, are also running businesses in the town and he said he will bring them in in the future as well.
“We have lots of other young men and women who are inventors and have great ideas,” he said. “What I want to do is bring them in and let them present their ideas to the city.”
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