Out of the closet

I have been reading the forum for a while now so I thought it was time to come out.
Come Saturday we will have been on our small piece of Paradise for exactly a year. We have 1 hectare of good black BOP topsoil supporting about 50 Avocados, 160 Mandarins and a selection of fruit and nut trees in the home garden. Our place is located in Te Puna about 10 mins north of Tauranga. We are Barbs and Dave, Im Dave. We have lived through a whole year cycle now and it has been a wonderful voyage of discovering just what we have here, and what a brilliant but uncompromising mistress nature is. I see nature as a women cos there are times I just can't fathom her out .
Our plan was... actually I'm not sure we really had a plan, just a strong desire to move out of the city, read AK, and stop "working for the Man".
We've learnt to prune, harvest, and grow veges. If you want to see a bit of what we are about go to barbnmedointhebop.spaces.live.com/default.aspx its my blog for friends and family o'seas.
I find the discussions here interesting, informative and very supportive. I hope I will be able to add something to the forum.
cheers
Dave B

As in Dave who got called Daisy?

Hi Dave and welcome to lsb

Great blog!

Cheers
Kate

Hi Pumpkingirl, yes the very same. Its amazing just how far the name follows me. Worked in Doha for a few months, and yep - someone there knew me by it.

Yes, I worked with you, way back in TV land, in a galaxy far, far away

Hi Dave,

Interesting blog. It brings back memories of my previous place 'just up the road' at Pahoia
Is that shelter trimmer still Colin Gane's? You won't find a better trimmer in the bay
Word of advice regarding your beautiful rhodo's - keep an eye out for greenhouse thrips on them as the thrips find them very attractive, and then they discover your avocados too []

It is the same business but now owned by Peter McGregor. I understand he worked for Colin. He does a good job too.
We keep a close eye on the thrips, they also damage the mandarins. Our biggest problem this year, other than the worst frosts in 25 yrs, was the white fly. We inherited a massive infestation. We seemed to have checked it with the use of white oil initially, and neem oil(two doses). Fingers crossed.

I found NeemAzal to work well against GH thrips and other surface feeders in general.
If you're considering more Rhodo plantings I understand the Maddenii hybrids are far less susceptable to GH thrips