Just thought I would introduce myself here. I am English, a semi retired web developer with a background in engineering and publishing. I am married to a Filipina and living in Davao, Philippines most of the time. My wife is a lot younger and an executive in Hong Hong where I lived for about 36 years so I spend a lot of time in Hong Kong. For the last 20 years we have planned to retire to Davao and develop a Permaculture farm. I am now getting started. At last I am in the process of buying land. If all goes according to plan I am buying 10,000 square meters beach front land with fertile hills behind, 5,000 square meters hilltop land to build a house 20 minutes from the beach lot, 10,000 square meters hilltop farm lot and 300 square meters residential lot. We already have about 10,000 square meters farm lot on the slopes of Mount Apo. The first priorities are to build a house on the hilltop and beach house at the beach designed with permaculture in mind then develop the food forests etc around the houses. Of course, lot can be done on the land before and during building. Its a lot of work but there is plenty of low cost labor available. With any luck I may find other Davao people on this forum but I guess parts of Australia will have a very similar climate to Davao anyway.
Re: Frank in Davao, Philippines G'day and welcome would have done so earlier but haven't been on the site for a while sounds like you've got a great property to live the dream on must be wonderful having worked so hard to be able to finally get your hands in the soil I'm afraid my climate advice won't be much help to you but I'm sure there plenty of warm climate folk here who can help good luck and have fun cheers
Re: Frank in Davao, Philippines Quick Frank , get in heaps of Mangosteens & Durians now , so you can enjoy them sooner . Plant as many exotic tropical fruit trees as you can find .
Re: Frank in Davao, Philippines Thanks for the welcome. I plan two food forests at least. The one on the house lot will be about 2,500 square meters and already has banana, coconut, Guava a couple of Jackfruit, an avocado, a tamarind and maybe others I haven't found yet. I found a couple of young neam trees and of course malungay. This one will have as many different fruits as I can get to grow. The one at the beach lot will be much larger, maybe 8,000 square meters, but I won't be there all the time so it needs to be things that don't require so much attention and are less likely to disappear when I am not around. It already has plenty of coconuts and bananas so I am planning coffee, cocoa and anything else I can get to grow together.
Re: Frank in Davao, Philippines P.S. I have two other one hectare lots that I have little idea what to do with yet. I welcome any suggestions.