rubberchicken
Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2022
- Messages
- 2
- Climate
- Tropical
Hi Everyone,
We moved to the Tablelands region (in Far North Queensland) around 9 months ago with the goal of building self-sufficient capability in food, power and water within the next 5 years. We have some experience with managing large green spaces before, but that’s been in a semi-urban zone out in Western Sydney. This time we're being far more serious about it - and we're well out our comfort zone on this one! We’ve chosen the Tablelands region primarily because of its latitude, elevation, rainfall and strategic location away from large urban areas.
Our property is a little over 3 acres, straddling a spring-fed creek that feeds a 1.2GL dam. It borders a national park on one side and a half-dozen or so hobby farmers on the other side of the creek. We bought the property in a very neglected state (what a bargain!) and we are able-bodied enough to do most of the clean-up work ourselves. We have a lot of work to do to fix up the land, clear the dam, cut back some of the overgrowth from the adjoining rainforest and restore the old citrus orchard. Needless to say, the past 8 months have been a gruelling learning experience, but very rewarding.
We have an existing orchard with grapefruit, lemons, mandarins and orange, although after the last harvest, some of the trees look a little sick and I’ll no doubt have some questions to ask forum members in the days and weeks moving forward on how I can care for them.
I’ve cleared off a small area to get the first four garden beds in, and we will be ready to plant the first crops very soon. The Tablelands region in QLD is in the tropics, but also has a relatively high elevation, making winters / dry season quite cool, so I’m hoping to have some success with some winter crops that otherwise wouldn’t do so well in a tropical climate.
Over time, I want to build more garden beds, move the banana trees to the back of the property, restore and repopulate the old chook pens near the citrus trees, and work out an aquatic permaculture system to keep our dam clean enough to maintain healthy fish. I’ve got a lot to learn and much research to do. Looking forward to being a part of this little online community and sharing experiences!
We moved to the Tablelands region (in Far North Queensland) around 9 months ago with the goal of building self-sufficient capability in food, power and water within the next 5 years. We have some experience with managing large green spaces before, but that’s been in a semi-urban zone out in Western Sydney. This time we're being far more serious about it - and we're well out our comfort zone on this one! We’ve chosen the Tablelands region primarily because of its latitude, elevation, rainfall and strategic location away from large urban areas.
Our property is a little over 3 acres, straddling a spring-fed creek that feeds a 1.2GL dam. It borders a national park on one side and a half-dozen or so hobby farmers on the other side of the creek. We bought the property in a very neglected state (what a bargain!) and we are able-bodied enough to do most of the clean-up work ourselves. We have a lot of work to do to fix up the land, clear the dam, cut back some of the overgrowth from the adjoining rainforest and restore the old citrus orchard. Needless to say, the past 8 months have been a gruelling learning experience, but very rewarding.
We have an existing orchard with grapefruit, lemons, mandarins and orange, although after the last harvest, some of the trees look a little sick and I’ll no doubt have some questions to ask forum members in the days and weeks moving forward on how I can care for them.
I’ve cleared off a small area to get the first four garden beds in, and we will be ready to plant the first crops very soon. The Tablelands region in QLD is in the tropics, but also has a relatively high elevation, making winters / dry season quite cool, so I’m hoping to have some success with some winter crops that otherwise wouldn’t do so well in a tropical climate.
Over time, I want to build more garden beds, move the banana trees to the back of the property, restore and repopulate the old chook pens near the citrus trees, and work out an aquatic permaculture system to keep our dam clean enough to maintain healthy fish. I’ve got a lot to learn and much research to do. Looking forward to being a part of this little online community and sharing experiences!
