Greetings from South Africa

[Karoo Permaculture]

Hi all

Glad to have found this site with usefull info. Hope to be able to contribute.

Im from South Africa, together with my Wife and 3 children (7,3,2) we moved to our barren 5acre property in a semi Arid part of South Africa in Jan2025. For the last year we have been building our tiny house. For now we have a few fruit trees planted, but im mainly focusing on getting pioneer species established. We are completely off the grid, 150m deep borehole(well point), 5KW Solar system. Closest town is 45 miles away on a very bad gravel road

 

[flowerbug]

Hi all

Glad to have found this site with usefull info. Hope to be able to contribute.

Im from South Africa, together with my Wife and 3 children (7,3,2) we moved to our barren 5acre property in a semi Arid part of South Africa in Jan2025. For the last year we have been building our tiny house. For now we have a few fruit trees planted, but im mainly focusing on getting pioneer species established. We are completely off the grid, 150m deep borehole(well point), 5KW Solar system. Closest town is 45 miles away on a very bad gravel road

wow, that is quite a challenge. welcome to SS from mid-Michigan USoA.

do you have a cistern for storing water from the well in case the power goes out?

 

[Karoo Permaculture]

wow, that is quite a challenge. welcome to SS from mid-Michigan USoA.

do you have a cistern for storing water from the well in case the power goes out?

Hi Flowerbug

We have 2 x 1300 gallon storage tanks. From the borehole we pump to the tanks and then from there we use a pressure pump to the house and gardens.

We are not connected to the grid, so we make sure the power never goes off. When we have a few rainy days we still get enough power in via the solar panels to get the battery to full charge, and then we start the generator to get the geyser hot.

This past year we only used the generator for about 5 hours on total

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's quite a set up! Welcome to the forum. Look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[flowerbug]

sounds very nice.

 

[baymule]

Welcome from East Texas. It will be interesting to follow your journey. I’m on 25 acres, East Texas is pine forests and ranch land, lush green grass and cattle. I raise Katahdin hair sheep.

 

[Mini Horses]

Welcome from VA, USA. Sounds like Sun & heat are what you deal with. What is your land like there? Is a garden possible? We'd love pictures . It's interesting to see the challenges others face & overcome. Different parts of our country is extreme, as I'm sure your is

 

[murphysranch]

Welcome from Southern Washington state. I'll be interested in your journal, so I can learn about a different country.

 

[Hinotori]

Welcome from Washington state USA

 

[Karoo Permaculture]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcomes.

we get around 400-600mm (15 - 24 Inch) of rain per year. There is a seasonal river that runs for about 8 months of the year. There are a lot of trees close to the river, other then that it is mostly shrubs.

So the Biome where we live is know for its succulents and fynbos both very drought resistant. Which have a lot medicinal properties(that we still need to learn about).

With this in mind we are not planning to remove all the natural veld, but rather 'enhance' it. Im mostly planting Leuceana trees, for pollarding, using as fodder and for shade and Karee.

Stuff that other people see as invasive doesnt really become invasive here due to the harsh conditions, so I have a few black wattle and black locust planted as well. our main grass that we are trying to get established is also the much hated bermuda. One of my absolute new found loves are Bamboo, I initially planted 5 of the tuldoides variety to use as wind break, we get insane winds here. Since then we have planted 9 different species downhill from our house that gets irrigated daily with the bath, shower and washing machine water.

We still need to get veggie gardens going(im focussing on perennials 1st), When the excavator came to clear some land for the house build, we pushed all the vegetation to one side and covered it with the bad clay soil we have here. It is now a year and a half later and that 'hugelculture' ground is awesome. We have planted a few berry bushes in there so long.

Im planning on doing bi-monhtly video updates for my friends, will upload it on youtube and send the link here.