Step 1

Well, John came over and walked my land, with Mitzy in tow for a little while anyways. She didn't follow him up the very steep hill. Smart dog.
The land has a lot of shale which I knew in fact when it rains the rain is just absorbed straight through the crushed shale. There's a lot of the shale in the river which I was not aware of and there is some clover starting to grow by the river. Most interesting.
In the upper part of the property where the house is and up towards the road the land is very dry and has not sustained several plantings of different vegetation. There have been 3 or maybe 4 plantings that have not survived the harsh Wamboin climate, which is~very windy, cold and dry.
I have planted only the hardiest of plants which have been Manta Ray (native), olives (2 have survived), radiata pine, conifers (3 have survived), pencil pine (growing ok), prunus, bay laurel, walnut, Canadian Maple (well I can dream can't I?) Gingko (must always plant a gingko where ever I live) and mulberry. The Black wattles have been dieing off. The cotoneastas are happily growing but they were here before I came.
John thinks that the best thing to do is spray some "liquid life" onto this top paddock to get things going there, as in break up the soil and add nutrition and mulch.
He feels that this place can become very abundant within 18months. He will send me a full report in a few weeks time and then the experiment will begin.
More on my ideas of what I'd like to do here at a later stage.