paradisi

We live in a small suburb of Caloundra city a town of about 90,000, a part of the Sunshine Coast and approx 100km north of Brisbane in Queensland, Australia. The suburb is named for a ship called the SS Dicky that ran aground here in the 19th century. Bits of it can still be seen on the main beach.

We live on a small block of land - about 600 square metres with a duplex built on it. The old mum lives in the one out the front, Sandie and I live in the back one.

We've got about 280 square metres of garden which is fairly productive and heavily planted with mainly fruit trees and vines.

We have a dog - Nuggett, guinea pigs, finches, cockatiels, peach faces and four chooks. There's currently a nesting pair of little wattle birds in one of the hanging baskets under our pergola.

Our vegies are mostly grown in pots - to simplify their sunlight requirements and to help keep the chooks out of them. The chooks free range the entire garden which helps in weeding, pest control and fertilising.

The fruit trees and vines number about 50. Crazy I've been told, but you can think what you like while I pick what I grow.

What we've got:
bananas - lady fingers - 8, three with bunches, one bunch just picked and hanging under the pergola to finish ripening
blue java - 2 young plants - got them as in vitro cultures from the banana research station at Nambour

pasion fruit
granadilla
choko
lychee
longan
loquat
custard apple
sweetsop
soursop
snake skin fruit
chocolate pudding fruit
jabacotiba
grumichama
citrus- red grapefruit, orange, lemon, rough lemon, mandarin, lemonade fruit, cumqaut, buddhas hand citrus, kafir lime
calamondin
paw paw
feijoa
coffee
peanut butter fruit
olives
jak fruit
goji
noni
ice cream bean
mango
pineapple - shop bought and red pineapple
grapes - red globe, pinot noir, white grape (can't remember)
nectarine
casava
taro
strawberry

that's more than 50 and I'm sure I've left some out

Life is simple - feed the animals in the morning, walk the dog, enjoy the climate, occasional fishing in the tidal lake about 50-100m away, beach combing (two beaches within 200m a third 500m away).....

To help feed the soul as well as the belly we've also got mock orange, port wine magnolia, himalayan magnolia, half a dozen roses and flowers wherever we can plant them.

This is the house at the end of our street, worth about $8million more than ours.


Some photos of what we have growing here - click the pics to biggerify

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The universe is my eyes and ears. All else is hearsay.

saltydad

A chook is a chicken? And a peach face? Wow, you and Microfarmer squeeze more plants onto your property....amazing! Love the beach.

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Men In Nursing- "A Few Good Men"

"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." - Francis Bacon





"If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicion that grips us; that is what they meant by a liberal, I am proud to be a liberal."
John F. Kennedy, September, 1960


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paradisi

spot on saltydad - a chook is a chicken (keep forgetting that you lot and we lot speak the same language with so many differences)

a peach face is a small african parrot - Google Image Result for http://www.petbirdpage.com/images/peach-fa.jpg is a link to a picture of one

putting lots of plants into a small space is like having lots of potted plants in the soil

planting close makes the plants self prune the branches and the root competition is like a pot - - this limits growth and fruit production, but because I'd rather have some fruit for most of the year rather than 200kg of oranges in one week it makes us happier.

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The universe is my eyes and ears. All else is hearsay.

Richard

For those of us in the states, 280 square meters is about 0.06 acres.

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chong

Or, 3014 Square Feet. That's probably just a little under the land area that Joe Real has for his over 300 varieties of fruits he's growing.

Richard

O.K., about 55 feet x 55 feet if it is square. Paradisi, my barmah is off to you!

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Dean W.

Paradisi, that's alot of stuff on a small plot. I would like to see more.

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