Permaculture reasoning, always prefers the mid-slope, so maybe somewhere in between? Don’t underestimate what an awesome food forest, will do to an unfavorable climate. Like how you assume the mid-slope (between the ocean and mountains) will be.

I haven’t had this checked out professionally, but through observation, we seem to be living in a rain shadow. The rain tends to fall several kilometers, either side of us, so we miss some good rain events. However, I’ve noticed God sends “enough” rain for what our landscape requires. It just meant we have to get inventive with water harvesting, land sculpting (swales and ponds) to make the most out of what we get. As we improve the quality of the vegetation (more diversity in other words) the nicer the temperatures are becoming, and the longer moisture stays in the ground.

I would love to have been able to buy on the coastal hinterlands, which receives all the reliable rainfall, but for acreage they run in the millions. So definitely, not an option! Instead we bought what we could afford, and let God show us what this land needed from us – rather than the other way around. ;) But there’s definitely nothing wrong with wanting an easier time of it. When faced with the limitations of our budget however, we went with the middle road and exploited the edges!

One thing I will say about mountains though, the big disadvantage, is when there’s a natural disaster and land-slips occur. It will cut off your access to town, to neighbours in some cases, and you might even lose some of your garden and land as gravity and the forces of nature, take it away. As someone who lives on slopes, I’m glad God sort to position us in a better area and perhaps it’s wise to be kept in a rain shadow for this region? I know we got hammered by the 2011 Queensland floods, but those coastal hinterlands, sustained more rainfall, therefore more flooding, and larger land slips as a result. What’s more, the bill to repair the damage to infrastructure was more expensive too.

I sometimes wondered why we were given such a hard piece of land to work, but when the inland Tsunami hit our State, back in 2011, I saw God’s wisdom in it. Sure, it might have been a lot of work to get success from our gardening efforts, but at least our house still stood and we lost minimal land to rushing water. I’m reminded of the man who builds his house on a rock – the water is everywhere, but it goes around him and he keeps all that he labored for. We may want to move to the oasis, but God sees the lifetime of our efforts, may require a bit of drought to survive his plans.

So if you find your budget requires looking in those places you wanted the least, ask God to show you the potential for paradise in those places. Because a man who respects God, can build paradise and keep it.