My husband took on a job in the Middle East for a year so that I can finally move to our 'dream home'!
It's a little bit sad, but we chat on a daily basis, and the perks are that I moved (with 3 sons entow, and Maya, our staffie) from a matchbox of a house with barely any garden (my previous garden was 2m x 3m big!!!)(in the 'urban jungle' called Cape Town) to a huge 5 bedroom house that's nearly 150 years old, on a 4000m2 plot in the heart of the Karoo!
It's a life-style I have only ever dreamed about... but it's damn difficult! I inherited a long driveway with 5 different types of grapes, 2 apricot trees, a plum tree, 4 prickly pears (...I've unfortunately lost 2 already in the past month from all the rains we've had
), a pear tree (that's ripping my foundation to bits... see more in 'fruits' forum), 4 fig trees, and a chicken coup (5m x 10m) - no chooks yet though. 
To all of this, I've added a bay leaf tree, a kumquat tree, a couple of different berry bushes (yes...
for those of you that know... that was a big issue for me - but thanks to 'contributions', I now have quite a few different types), a couple of gooseberry bushes, an olive tree and a few elderberries... not forgetting to mention that I've started quite a few huge beds with loads of different types of veggies and melons 
...I'm sure you can appreciate what a happy puppy I am!!! 
Then we have all this weird weather... thunder, loads of rain and hail (this is our summer weather, coupled with extreme heat
!) and frost and snow in winter... can't wait 
!!! And electricity failures... lightning surges... 
- you don't get all this extreme scenarios in Cape Town !Taking all this into consideration, and the fact that I'm like a duck out of water in this environment... any and all advice will be appreciated - and yes... the fact remains that I'm one of those 'book gardeners'! I've never had much of a chance to practice the 'practical aspect'
, so please feel free to throw any advice my way - I could sure use it 
! Regards
Bridgette
, usually, irregardless of where you are in this country, you're gasping for air on Christmas day!!!