Three and a half acres of nuts and fruit trees

Well, we have been on this property since 18 January 2006 and it is a big challenge and delight to us. Malcolm Murchie and Deirdre Kent are our names and Deirdre's granddaughter Tereana Kent is with us in school holidays too. She boards as a fourth former at Wanganui Girls College.

It is the first time we have owned anything other than a suburban property and we are not young. In fact Malcolm celebrated his 80th birthday last year and Deirdre is 67. Neither of us have done much gardening in our lives really but both have been convinced of the need to grow organically using permaculture principles. Over the last few years we have spent up large on organic food; the first thing we noticed on arrival here is that we don't need to shop as often and even then the bill is quite low. We are also very conscious that the end of cheap oil is upon us and that food is going to be important for our families as peak oil really impacts our society. So it was knowledge about peak oil that brought us here actually.

So what have we got on the property? We have heritage apples, lots of figs, feijoas, pears, grapes, plums, walnuts, persimmons, guavas, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, chestnuts, olives, nashi pears, passion fruit, green tea, cocoa trees, loquats, a cherry, two avocados, one cherimoya, two pecan nut, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries. The property was bare land just 15 years ago. The former owners were Ross and Margaret Dean who made the development of the property their retirement project. To plant a tree on this land require you to dig down to the stones, then pick out all the stones with a pickaxe. 250 trees have been planted over 15 years.

We have to mow quite a lot but hope to graze kunekune pigs in a fenced off area some time in the future, heaven knows when. This will reduce the need for mowing. But this means we should create a muddy place for the pigs and we haven't solved this problem yet.

The mower is a Walker, the very best for going right up to the trees and round them, and we also have a new mulcher to feed in prunings.

Half an acre of the property is taken up with native bush, through which there is a lovely pathway with stones either side. Another quarter acre is taken up with firewood trees.

This property is for sale now 2008