SO YOU THINK YOU COULD MAKE IT WORK

Once in a lifetime

Kia ora 

I am looking for two people to make this land their hOMe.  You need to be hardy, thick skinned, have a need to grow food, be baggage free and very easy-going. 

Having a long term commitment to living here would be good but not essential. You need to have a positive, creative and flexible vision for yourself. 

It'll be a bit like camping to begin with, so building/carpentry basics would be an advantage if you want to make your living easier.   0273432838 text only please to get in touch or find out more.

The land has a good spring fed water supply, and grey water 

re-cycle watering system you can tap into.

The local servo and shop are about 6km up the road.

The land is fantastic for herbs and fruit. Pretty much frost free.

Amazing Wild West coast beach or safe harbour beaches

are 5minute. Drive from the gate.

Excellent walks and fishing, and a keen local land care group.

Main house has power that can be accessed via

Builders box.

Large Bedford ex-school Bus for basic living is available to get started.

2012-2013

Glimpse of Growth and Harvest

Passion fruit waiting for a decent climbing frame 

Drying the parsley

Wild invaders

One of our sausage makers appears to have grown a testicle 

Tiger lilies loving it up here

Old fashioned variety of hydrangea

Autumn 2012

It is now May 2012 and not a lot has been done with regard to infrastructure, however the garden continues to grow, and harvests in autumn have been wonderful but erratic, feast or famine. 

Absolutely nothing like the taste of home grown bananas.
 I did an internet search and found a
Sth. African banana and ginger chutney recipe.

Modified the recipe to include some diced peaches and juice. Our golden Queen peaches were fantastic this year again.

The kamo kamo squash excelled themselves this year and were perfect
for using as a base for my mum's sweet pickle recipe.

The sweet pickle recipe requires celery seed and this home grown version 

seemed to be about twice as strong as the bought ones. 

Top jars are the S.A. chutney, 2 jars at right are kamo kamo sweet pickle,
middle jar is sweet pickled sauerkraut (cabbage). Last year we harvested 5 avocado, this year
we got around 25. Will definitely be planting more trees up here.

Most of the herbs are loving it up here, especially the parsley, rosemary and
onion families.

Comfrey and leek.

Comfrey and banana skins on compost heap.

I have been making my heaps in the garden in-situ so to speak rather than as proper compost bins for the meanwhile. Although the more intense weeds remain active they still break down enough to make a reasonable soil to grow in in the meanwhile, especially with some of the local seaweed added to the mix. Oh for a fit and young  body again.

 The lemons are struggling up here in the wind. 

2009-2011 Permaculture Zones Looking Good.

Vegetable garden, looking very messy with the chook house in the background. We collected a boot full of washed up seaweed two winters ago, and the herbs in particular are still thriving from having gone to the effort of gathering it. The herbs are a very promising income earner for the land.

Summer 2010/2011 saw the most amazing display of these flowering cactus that filled the night air with it's beautiful scent.

The Tiger Lillies have put on their first real display after three years in the ground. My father raised the tiny bulbs for us to plant, and hopefully in the future they will be another small source of income.

The Leyland Cypress are now huge, as you can see. The bus is finally being obscured by planting... that is the roof of the bus you can just see in the centre of the photo. 

The Citrus that have had adequate shelter from the wind when first planted have done very well up here. This year is the first year we have had a decent crop from the Mandarin seen extreme left above, and in the photo below. 

The Golden Queen Peach tree was self seeded, and although it has only been there for 4 years, we have had two heavy crops from it in the last two years. Apparently they are one of the few fruit trees that will do this. We have several seedlings coming along well for future planting. They are one of the few crops that do well in the westerly wind up here, as it seems to be keeping the black rot from setting in at harvest time. Another crop to be excited about possible future cash flow.

The Olive grove continues to do well, although no real sign of   yielding much in the way of actual fruit yet. This is an unspecified variety,and although it would be good to have planted a good cropping tree, there is always the opportunity of harvesting for Olive Leaf Extract down the line. Another growing project of my fathers, and if they don't crop I am lucky enough to have been given all the scientific data on its medicinal properties should the leaf extract be considered as an income stream down the line

The Flax and natives circle a  dip of ground out from the house which has been designated space for our future  small lake/water reservoir. They have only been in the ground for about 18 months and are really happy with where they have been planted by the look of things

Although I am not a great fan of Impatiens, they really lift the garden area here amongst the native plantings.

The Feijoa grove has struggled in the wind up here, but are now getting to a size where they appear to be coping reasonably well.

2007-2009 The Sustainable Plot Thickens.

The banana palm on the house lawn stands in front of the un-glassed glass house which is covered in Virginia Creeper.

View from the back door. Note the no longer needed corrugated iron wind break lying on its side. These raised bits of our old roofing came in very handy for plant protection, and looked exceedingly ugly much to the disdain of our neighbours.  

The Leyland Cypress hedge is great for wind protection from the prevailing westerlies we have up here  on top of the hill.

The Tiger Lily garden in front of the bus. 

.

Vegetable garden in the making, with Flax wind-break and hardly discernible rows of  baby Feijoa trees sheltering in rows in between.

Deceivingly tidy lawn which the lawnmower man has been very erratic at keeping.

Hiding the house bus is a slow and agonizing task. Hopefully once the
outside is overgrown it will look a little more inviting. 

Looking into the Olive grove.

View from the Olive grove back towards the house.

2004-2007 The gardens have begun to make their mark

The bush bath. Still in working order, but much more sheltered these days.

Leyland Cypress hedge in the background, which will eventually prove to be a great blessing for wind protection.

The quest to hide the bus begins. Can't have the neighbours thinking the damn hippy's live here now.