Gary, I canÂt figure out the chill hours here, and think there may be some other factor involved with why some fruit trees produce, and others donÂt. The books IÂve read suggest we get 300-600 hours of chilling. But a Bartlett pear in the far back of my double city lot yard that is supposed to need 800 hours of chilling, produces pears like grapes if I donÂt thin them. Two apricot trees (perhaps Blenheim-500 hrs) produced more apricots than I could handle for many years. Yet a BavayÂs Gage, which only needs 600 hours of chilling, located at the south of my house, didnÂt leaf out last year above three feet, possibly because of inadequate chilling. There seems to be a cold blanket of air that settles in the far back that provides more hours of chilling to whatever is there, below around 3-4 feet. IÂm experimenting with growing European plums, gages, and mirabelles in large pots there, putting them on their sides during dormancy to maximize the blanket of chill air. Also, sections of the north side of my house seem to stay cooler as well, and IÂm trying some higher chill apricots there, also in pots on their sides. The joys of zone pushing!

The block is 9.17 hectares. Part is creek and creek flats, part a swamp (separate from the creek area), part mango orchard, some open grassy areas, plus garden areas and a small dam. The dam, 30 metres by 28 metres when full, is the centre piece of my rainforest garden and is surrounded (and mostly shaded) by a lot of trees. I uploaded photos of my garden on this thread: Rainforest Garden

I have to put my two cents in here for you: OK I am an "expert" on pineapples. In fact, my plants produced so many pineapples this past summer that i was giving them away to the neighbors...I would plant one top and 6 more would sprout in the same pot-- low and behold there are pineapples hanging out everywhere. I started off with one or two pineapple tops from some supermarket pineapples and they went nuts. Here is the secret. Sit the top in water until some nice roots form. Plant it in a decent sized, well drained pot using ordinary potting soil. And leave alone for the most part- water maybe once a week when its dry only otherwise leave it alone... DO not put any of the plants in the ground-leave them in pots,let them get rootbound ..eventually you can divide them. Also, after picking some pineapples that were a bit tart, I figured out that you need to let the pineapple sit on the plant, as long as possible, until it is golden yellow and very fragrant... My husband recently gave away at least half of my plants!! since we had too large of a plantation! I still have about 20..and it all started from just a few supermarket pineapples ( dole gold)

Speaking of Trader Joes. I'm a relative newbie here and have seen time and time again posts about Trader Joes. A couple of weeks ago I was in Chapel Hill NC for a week and there was a Trader Joes just across the road from my motel and I was in there soaking up the ambiance every day. I sure wish there was one close to my home. I loved it. Organic bananas,delish Calimyrna figs,samples of freshly made gluten free pancakes,freshly brewed coffee,etc,etc. I sure miss it since I got home. And now I read I could find those little flowers there too. I think I'll cry!! LOL Betty