The trees don't need much upkeep, he said, and once a month he fertilizes them. His kids don't need as much upkeep as they used to either. He said with all the vitamin C his family gets from the citrus, their trips to the doctor have become less and less frequent. Aside from the ones he and his family eat, Hughes sells bags of oranges cheap, and plans to donate the rest of this year's crop to charity. Fruit aren't the only thing to crop up in his yard.
Joggers often come by and help themselves, and snowbirds love to see the trees.
Hughes said many of the visitors to his grove saw a picture from The Log of the trees from the 1996 freeze. Hughes isn't the first one in Northwest Florida to envy the groves of the southern peninsula. Coleman and Mattie Kelly had an orange grove on their property also, Hughes said. While his grove doesn't match the immenseness of the ones in South Florida, Hughes keeps in contact with growers down there for advice. It's not as easy as it looks.