It’s been a while since we’ve updated the blog. Not that we’ve had nothing to blog about, it’s just that we’ve been so busy with so many projects, and blogging is quite time consuming.

Now that we’ve been on our property for over 5 years, we’ve learnt quite a bit. We’re finding out what naturally grows well for us here in the Clarence Valley and what techniques and methods we need to use to help the plants that don’t grow so naturally here. We’ve failed a lot of plants, but we’ve had a lot more successes. We’re learning how the weather works to and against our advantage, and the possible natural disasters that we need to be prepared for. We’re discovering what types of pests keep coming around and which plants are more likely to be ravaged by them. There is so much to learn but we love it! We will be forever learning here on the farm!

Here’s Koro and Jojo checking out the cherry guavas and avocados in the food forest.

Our best growing plants here in the Clarence Valley have been garlic, turmeric, ginger and rosella. They’ve been fairly low maintenance and we haven’t had problems with pests. We harvest and use these extensively which I will post about in the coming days…so stay tuned! Sugarcane and Arrowroot grow well here as well, which we use as wind breaks and shade for summer. They also make good chop and drop plants (chopping down to use as mulch).

One of our favorite fruits that we’ve been struggling to grow here is a mango tree. We had one growing really well on the Gold Coast which we planted and did nothing else to it and it thrived. But here in our frosty climate with clay soil and a few years of either drought or floods we’ve struggled with them. We’ve killed quite a few – not intentionally of course, but we do have a couple that are looking really good at the moment in the food forest. Hopefully they’ll survive this winter and will keep flourishing!!!

We’ve had good seasons and bad seasons of potatos, tomatos and the usual basics. We love corn but have to fight the critters before they beat us to them. We’ve had a lot of bandicoots (a marsupial that looks like a large rat) this year. They love our garden too! Our gardens are forever changing, as are our challenges. Bring it on we say!!!

Here’s just a few of the goodies we have growing in our gardens. I will endeavor to post more details as we learn how to grow, harvest, and use them!