#  >  > Living And Legal Affairs In Thailand >  >  > Farming & Gardening In Thailand >  >  500 square meters of Pattaya pond

## dirtydog

I have been tidying up the land the last couple of days as it was covered in plastic and general rubbish, maybe take another couple of days to get it a bit neater and tidier, and I been thinking about what to do with my pond, now I had a couple of ponds back in the UK so I have a bit of knowledge on the subject, the only difference being is the ones in the UK were fiberglass and about 3 square meters each, so not quite the same scale as this one.

This pond is 50 meters long and 10 meters wide and about 4 meters deep with some fishes in it, no idea what they are though, so lets start with the fishes, I don't eat fresh water fish as I don't like the taste of mud, but I will chuck a few catfish in there, also some guppys for the bigger fish to eat, gold fish and koi carp, I doubt I will aeriate it but may stick a couple of water features round the edges and maybe a fountain in the middle, these are only for decorative purposes though, not interested in breeding fish for profit or anything like that, maybe do the odd bit of fishing and chuck them back in though.

Anyway as you can see its a bit of a mess.



^In the far left corner is a run off for the pond that goes into the neighbours pond, thats full of bamboo and will be staying as a feature, there is also some shade tree but I don't remember planting that, but as you can see it's all a bit barren.

Where I took this picture the land needs to be raised, this part of the pond is a nice slope so the water lilies will go here, also it is the furthest point away from where the house will be built, so a duck house for a couple of ducks will be here, not sure if you can buy them in Thailand though, also do they eat fish and if the lilies are established by that time will they be ok?



My shade tree and the bamboo over to the left, probably chuck a few nice rocks in front of the bamboo to seperate that area as thats where all the nasty critters will live.



This is taken from where the front porch will be viewing to the left, so, do I bring the pond to the porch or build something over the pond to make a nice seating area?



The edges look crap don't they, maybe just lawn grass going down to the edge of the water?


Also I want some turtles and terrapins in there, not sure what sort of damage they do to other animals or to the pond, it also needs plants and trees round it but I don't want to spend every day picking leaves out of the bloody thing, so suggestions needed, I like the idea of seperate areas in a garden so it needs lots of ideas  :Sad:  and cheap ones at that, after it is only a bloody pond  :Smile:

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## Loy Toy

I live on a similar type of thing only it is a running stream/ Klong.

Some of the fish I pull out of there fetches 180 Baht a Kg down at tesco lotus and if you clean and cook the fish immediately they taste fine.

Yep you better get a lot of fish in there mate because the mozzies are going to be horrendous being a still pond and all.

Will create a great feature for your property DD and a lot of fun.  :Smile: 

For your information if you build a small cement pool put a plastic cover over it and breed Tabtim and Koi Carp then let them go into the pond they are a really strong and quite a nice tasting fish. I know of a few restaurants in Pattaya who are serving them up at the moment and charging a bundle.

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## baldrick

I have just read Buad Hai s pond thread




> I doubt I will aeriate it


this item was posted there



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I like the idea of  outdoor solar gizmos that can be just set and pretty well forgot

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## dirtydog

^Might be a bit small for my pond, was thinking along the lines of the fountain pushing up water to about 3 meters high  :Smile: 
I will have solar garden lighting for the driveway though and maybe other areas in the garden.

How bout a waterfall, right hand side of this picture about 2 meters high built out of natural rock, that would look quite smart.

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## Loy Toy

How's this one DD and the fish seem to love it.

3,000 Baht!

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## dirtydog

That one looks ok, just an ordinary pump and pipe with a fountain head on it?

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## Loy Toy

Its only a foam float in a plastic frame, an anchor with a pump and jet mounting.

All the wiring, pipes and control box including instalation cost 3,000.00 baht and if you want the Thai guy's name he can come a see you when you ready.

Creates a nice affect and even better sound of running water.  :Smile:

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## Chairman Mao

I'd build something like this, except have it in the middle of the pond on wooden stilts, with a small wooded bridge, and have it in the Northern Lanna style. 

With maybe a brick BBQ and ice box in the middle for your beer. and speakers in each corner hooked up to your system. Would be a nice place to chill.



And four chrome poles for when you have some naked dancers over.

I'd pay a visit.

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## dirtydog

Thats not quite the type of sala I had in mind for my place, the front of mine will face north so I need to protect the sides from the sun getting in, trellis and some climbing plant I think is the answer for the shade from the sides, bbq is a must but just outside the sala, beer fridge and pc connection in the sala, wonder how much a bridge and a floating sala in the middle would cost, probably too much  :Sad: 

Right tomorrow I shall start, lilies in the shallow end of the pond and an area for pappaya trees, said I wanted cheap didn't I, must have some seeds downstairs  :Smile:

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## kingwilly

They are Comets you idiot not Koi, I can see we'll have to call BkkMadness to come back and run you off this forum too if you persist!

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## dirtydog

Actually thinking about loytoys earlier post has got me thinking on the fish, I was just gonna go to the petshop and buy half a dozen of each sort I liked and chuck them in the pond to breed, I also wanted stuff like neon tetras, zebra danios, tiger barbs, when I chuck them in the pond they are going to panic and swim away, if they never meet up again they won't breed, I assume their is a density of fish you should have, ie 1 per meter or something so they meet up and breed.

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## mellow

Here is a picture of our ponds. They have a lot of fish in them, carp, catfish, Tilapia, also turtles and frogs. The ponds are interconnected via an underground cement pipe of a large diameter. We don't really do anything extra other then give rice bran and some food pellets. We top off the water with a pump that draws water out of the Klong, when water is available. Throw in a few bags of cow poo, once or twice a year to fertilize.  Will post pictures again as soon as I can figure out, why when opening picture in new tab, Image Shak will allow people to go to my page on their site. Where it reveals my name. Not that I have something to hide, but it doesn't need to be on the internet. Weird.

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## dirtydog

Change the settings on your photobucket account to private or just set up another account or use the gallery here.

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## Smithson

If it was me I'd go for a natural look, that provides food as well. Maybe make a small stream out of rocks with a waterfall back into the pond, including a simple gravel biofilter.

Then some nice plants along banks where the walls are, definitely bananas as they like the water. Mix in some small flowers and fragrant herbs, as lots of color and smells confuse the pests. 

For fish, tubtim are tough, look nice and are good eating, especially when fresh. Then you can set up a sala on the edge or even floating, if you feed the fish they'll come over whenever they see you, so you can just scoop them up and chuck one on the Barbie, with a beer in the other hand.

We built a decent size bamboo sala with thatch roof for about B8,000. If you wanted a floating one just use those blue barrels. 

A fountain will keep the birds away from your fish, if this is what you want. On the other hand, you maybe happy to sacrifice a few fingerlings for the extra wildlife. The water will attract a variety of birds that will eat insects that attack your food plants. We're on the edge on Kao Yai, and have some really nice birds around, including blue kingfishers.

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## dirtydog

^Some good ideas there, I have some banana trees on another part of the land so shall take some cuttings from them, there are already thousands of baby fish in there and also some big ones, no idea of what sort and the birds eating a few don't really matter, bamboo sala sounds like my sort of price range  :Smile: 

Well I spent the morning down there again today, burnt another tonne of rubbish, moved another tonne of rubble, planted about 100 tamarind seeds, 100 papaya seeds and 100 chili pepper seeds, these are all on the waters edge so they don't need anything doing to them, tomorrow I shall see what other seeds we have downstairs  :Smile:

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## Loy Toy

I know you have mentioned the location of this land before DD and I believe it is on the East side of Sukhumvit Road almost opposite Theprasit Rd.

Just wondering whether your pond is feed by the same underground spring that feeds our Klong.

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## dirtydog

4 or 5 kms from Soi Theprasit on the east side of Pattaya, think it must be fed from an underground stream as before the guy ran his pond into mine it was always full of water all year round anyway, also the area has a great many ponds that the water lorries use to supply houses with water.

I've just googled Tamarind as I had no idea what they were, think I may have made a slight mistake planting 100 of the poxy things, shall probably end up keeping 3 of them, oh well, the rest can be used on the compost heap when i build one.

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## Loy Toy

Wonderful then and as the water should not get stagnant and smell.

If you do the right thing with the pond and build a half decent house around that pond the property value should be great in the future and when having such a nice water feature.

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## Smithson

OK, you've got me started now...

The rainy season is coming up, good time to start planning. You will save a lot by going to a big nursery and buying in bulk. 

With that much water and nearby land, you could probably grow most of your own food, whilst still having a real nice play for a beer and barbie. Of course you'll need lotuses and other water plants, they'll help clean the water for you. 

For ornamentals, consider some Heliconias, these like semi-shade and will flower all year round with adequate water. If you're really keen and want to go a bit feral, then read up on the permaculture forest garden concept.

Unlike building, it's easy to change things if they don't work/look good. Whatever you decide to do, it'll be money well spent because I'm sure you'll spend plenty of time down there. 

Here's a bad pic of our sala and pond....



...it's not quite finished and doesn't look that great now, but with some paving and plants it'll come up nice, maybe something like this...

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## dirtydog

That pond looks a bit more manageble than mine, I want a bigger sala than that, maybe inside area of 4 meters by 4 meters, I also want it to extend out over the pond a bit although that will increase the cost quite a bit, tomorrow I shall try and have a clear up of the pond edges.

Also couldn't find any water lilies downstairs so shall steal some tomorrow  :Smile:

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## Smithson

That sala is about 3.5m x 2.5, not bad for a few ppl, but with a bigger pond a large sala would be nice. If you want to extend out, then maybe some concrete stumps into the water, but will cost quite a bit more, but the actually sala and materials aren't that expensive. It won't last for ever, but nothing does. 

There's lots of nice stuff on the net, especially in Bali. Also check out some of the Thai garden magazines, I like these because unlike fancy resorts, the are quite resourceful and able to do nice stuff while keeping the costs down.

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## Loy Toy

Here's a few pictures of our sala and it was relatively cheap to build at 75,000.00 Baht IMO. A nice piece of outdoor furniture and a lovely place to sit and relax!  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

Thats nice, trouble is i get bored with things quite quickly, so after a couple of years I would be knocking it down and rebuilding it in a different style, so due to the above and being skint I shall probably go with some concrete footings, nice cheap bamboo and palm leaf roof, it will have a thai style kitchen in as well, ie cooker, sink and that sort of thing, will also build an outside toilet to save walking back to the house all the time, oh well, get the pond looking good first I think  :Smile:

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## Smithson

> will also build an outside toilet to save walking back to the house all the time, oh well,


Just put in a lemon tree and pee on that, it'll love the nitrogen.

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## mellow

Here are a few pictures of our 2 ponds. I hope this works, I'm following DD's instructions in " How To Do Stuff."

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## dirtydog



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## dirtydog

hmmm, why no plants round the edge of the pond and why no ducks, I was looking at some pictures of ducks today and there are some really nice ones, although probably have to make do with whatever is available here in Thailand.

Another thought, 2 sides of the pond are right near the garden walls, there is a sort of path way there but it isn't some where I am ever going to walk, the highest point is about a meter above the water, would pieces of string going down into the water be enough to wick up water for the plants on those banks?

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## dirtydog

The rubbish clearing seems to be a never ending job, this is my 4th bonfire and is the smallest one so far, I have 3 others ready to light up but they still got more rubbish close to them, the amount of plastic I have got out of the pond if it had any value I would be a rich man, the local cows were on the land again today so that helps keep the jungle at bay.



One of todays piles of rubbish to be burnt over the next few days.

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## dirtydog

One of my neighbours houses, now something like this built out over the pond would make a lovely guest house, needs a bigger balcony and maybe a few more windows.

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## dirtydog

I found some water type plants downstairs so half a dozen of each of these have been stuck in the pond edges, this stuff grows like weeds and is probably a weed but they look ok.

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## Nawty

If that pond is 50m long, then my schlong is 36 inches.

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## dirtydog

Not sure what type of plant this is but it was already there and is now visible after pulling out a tonne of weeds, I have seen these quite often round ponds in Thailand so must be common, the soil there on this bank is really good so this one should spread quite quickly if I keep the weeds under control.



He got a bit damaged as I was destroying the other plants but I am sure he will live  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

> If that pond is 50m long, then my schlong is 3.6 inches.


Its probably about 500 meters long if you counted the continuous water, at present the water comes from one pond into my one and then into the neighbours.

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## rawlins

I would like to dip my schlong in your pond DD...

Would love one myself but I have only got about 1m of garden around the house... Maybe I'll build a moat...

Any mozzie problems?...  Snakes?... Crocs?

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## dirtydog

There must be mossies there, but i haven't seen any larvae in the pond, but there are a load of fish in there and they don't get fed, haven't seen a snake there this week and I have been there everyday, although the cow guy walks his cows on my land so the cows probably scare them off before I get there, hmm crocs, I did imagine I saw a big monitor lizard there, as I got there something sort of slithered off into the water with a big splash from the far bank, still aint sure what sort of beast that was  :Sad:

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## Nawty

Thoses crocs that escaped form the farms and other peoples ponds have to go somewhere.

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## Smithson

> Another thought, 2 sides of the pond are right near the garden walls, there is a sort of path way there but it isn't some where I am ever going to walk, the highest point is about a meter above the water, would pieces of string going down into the water be enough to wick up water for the plants on those banks?


Dunno about the bits of string, could work if they were buried, but your plants roots should be able to get down into the moist soil. Planting banana on banks that slope back into the pond would work well, if the level drops you can water them from the pond and the water will flow back in.

There is also this grass that has really long waterborne roots that will go really deep into the pond where the dirty water is. This helps clean the pond, might be called onion grass, not sure. If you find out the name let me know, because I want to get some.

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## dirtydog

It's the getting the roots down to the damp soil which is where things may go wrong, I just want a plant and leave option, and I want to use free plants so that means cuttings or seeds which will just die without the damp soil  :Sad:  the bananas will only be in a small area, maybe 5 meters of the far bank as they don't block out walls very good and I don't want to see the wall as I am not going to bother painting it.

I found some more trees on my land today so tomorrow I shall start transplanting them around the pond.

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## Smithson

^ It depends on how much the water level alters thru the seasons. If it's pretty consistent then you're fine. Tropical plants are used to months of rain and also months of dry, so are pretty tough. Although they don't look so nice when things are dry.

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## a. boozer

Loy Toy: That really does look rather nice! your own design or not?

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## Loy Toy

> Loy Toy: That really does look rather nice! your own design or not?


Yep, but the details and craftmanship was designed by my builder.

Actually where that Sala is built was once part of the small stream. I reclaimed that land and at the same time built a small dam and to create a fast running rockery rapids effect.

It is really lovely sitting in the Sala and listening to the rapids which I can also here when I am in the bed on the property nect door. Very soothing.  :Smile: 

As we don't live on the Ocean or have mountian views I always try to create my own view.

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## dirtydog

Well I have been working on the land and pond like a man that swears at Thai immigration in Phuket for the last week, and its looking pretty good, 90 percent of the rubbish is burnt, 70 percent of the rubble is moved, I did make a slight mistake today, got a couple of truck loads of off cuts of Q Con blocks near the pond, thought a good way of hiding them was to chuck them in the deep end of the pond never to be seen again, chucked a few in, found a load of plastic and took that to the bonfire, went back to start chucking more in, hmmmm, seems that q con blocks bloody well float, so tomorrow I got to fish them out of the pond again  :Sad:

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## a. boozer

> Well I have been working on the land and pond like a man that swears at Thai immigration in Phuket for the last week, and its looking pretty good, 90 percent of the rubbish is burnt, 70 percent of the rubble is moved, I did make a slight mistake today, got a couple of truck loads of off cuts of Q Con blocks near the pond, thought a good way of hiding them was to chuck them in the deep end of the pond never to be seen again, chucked a few in, found a load of plastic and took that to the bonfire, went back to start chucking more in, hmmmm, seems that q con blocks bloody well float, so tomorrow I got to fish them out of the pond again



DD. We all live and learn!

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## dirtydog

Ok a quick bit of advice, don't use q con blocks to build a boat, they do sink eventually so a few more went in the deep end today.

Well another mornings work of clearing rubbish and debris, also some more plants went in, stuck about 10 of these green ones in round the ponds edges, thats about as big as they grow I think but spread pretty quickly, want about 5 meters of one of the pond edged in these as the insects don't eat them and they don't need any care as far as I know.



Not sure if these are flags or irises, something like that anyway, we got about 100 of these and they grow to about 6 foot, perfect for hiding some of the back wall, trouble is my girlfriend wont let me take them, so next time she is out I shall nick some and go and plant them.

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## dirtydog

So plant or weed?
We got 3 of these by the pond, they look a bit tatty due to nobody caring for them and cows chewing on them, so is it time to dig them out and chuck them on the compost pile or trim them down a bit?

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## Marmite the Dog

> So plant or weed?


Up to you.

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## dirtydog

Very helpful, well regardless they can't stay where they are as that is the first bit you see as you drive onto the land so I need low stuff there so there will be a good view of the pond, so do I dig them up and replant them or do I dig them up and add them to the compost pile?

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## Marmite the Dog

What I mean is; a weed is only a weed if you don't want it to grow there. That's not being 'funny', but the truth.

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## Thaicoon

Here is our pond in the Garden, not finished yet, got to concrete it and concrete the big boulders in, pump etc, and the 2nd photo is a lake we have just dug out, one of 3, this one is about 1 rai, the other is going to be a bit bigger at 3 rai.

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## dirtydog

You have some nice rocks in that first picture, are those your flip flops in front of the rocks  :Smile:

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## rawlins

So... I quite fancy one of these pond things.. Just have to start digging and the water will come or what?

Off to buy a spade now.

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## Thaicoon

> You have some nice rocks in that first picture, are those your flip flops in front of the rocks


 
Hi Dirty Dog,
I think the poachers have been around and left there flip flops, then noticed it empty. 

Those rocks we have tons of these on various plots of land, some are a sort of sandstone the others are all volcanic.

I think reading previous posts, big rocks down pattaya etc are big money.

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## dirtydog

Well in my quest for easy gardening I have started my rope experiment, got about 90 cms of nice thick rope, about 2cms of it is in the water, the bank is about 45 degrees there, if I get up early enough tomorrow I shall be able to work out how far up the rope the water will wick, probably will try it buried as well to see if that works better.

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## dirtydog

The banana trees have to come out and be moved over to the pond, then that whole back wall area will be a raised vegetable garden, that pile of sticks etc is the start of one of what will be the compost heaps.



Its about 20 meters long there, the wall on the left is 30 meters long but no idea how to hide that one yet.



Found this jaw bone today on the land, not sure if the locals are holding ceremonial killings on the land in the evenings whilst dancing naked round the bonfires.

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## Happyman

As  rough guide on fish density the pond on this site had 50 Tilapia - 10cm , 70 Pacu - 10-15cm, 10 Snakeheads - 15-20cm , when it was first stocked after digging 2 and a bit years ago.
Tilapia are now in their thousands!! Pacu are up to 3.5 kilo, Snakeheads are about 60cm and keep the Tilapia under control ( and chomp some of the smaller Pacu!! )
Recently introduced half a dozen 4 kg catfish just to liven the fishing up  :Smile: 

Phuket Sports & Tennis Club - Beach Volleyball, Tennis etc.

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## dirtydog

I do like the idea of this small raised pond feeding into it.

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## dirtydog

Working on the land again today and it was my turn to have the cows, now I don't mind the cows as they eat all the jungle that keeps trying to reclaim my land, as long as they keep away from me and the bonfires etc they can stay, I should mention that laying down dead trees along an area you want to protect from them doesn't work, luckily the seeds havent started yet but it looks like tomorrow I have to start on some sort of fence to protect that area  :Sad: 

So there I was washing my hands in the pond, one of the beasts decided he wanted a drink of water, so down he comes and starts drinking about 5 meters from me, thats about as close as I let them get, bent down to give my arms a final rinse, stood up and the son of a bitch pushed past me, I am standing on a 45 degree slope and the bstard thing obviously tried to push me into the poxy pond, I may set up some traps for them tomorrow.



^One of the big beasty ones that must nearly be ready for the bbq.



Should mention that not all the bits of q con blocks sink, so I was fishing them out of the pond today  :Sad:

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## Nawty

walking skeletons...

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## Happyman

> I do like the idea of this small raised pond feeding into it.


Under the sala is a pump room drawing water from the main pond through a centrifugal filter - the gravel to the right is a waterbed of gravel with water/marsh plants in it to do a bit more filtering.
The small pond is for Koi carp (NO FISHING !!) and this drains over a waterfall back into the main pond .
I only dug the 'ole and did the buildings and tennis court  - the landscaping was done by the chap who built the BBQ ( see the recent BBQ thread) and he also built the filters along with a Koi carp/filter nutter ! ( also a TD member ! )

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## Nawty

Its greener than the grass ??

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## dirtydog

I thought all animals were scared of fire, seems Thai cows are too dumb for that though, so today in my enthusiasm to clear the land quickly I'm am down to doing lots of small fires, no more big piles of plastic to burn and that now, just old bits of tree and stuff, decided it was time to do the banks of the pond as well, so I started one by the big clump of bamboo, loads of dry grass and that and it went up good, then a cow went into the fire, obviously she is too big to turn round so she panicked a bit and fell in the pond, luckily she got out by herself, then I noticed another cow walking through one of my other fires, she didn't even notice for a few seconds, can only assume these cows are destined for the bbq.

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## Happyman

> Its greener than the grass ??



The water is never absolutely clear unfortunately but it is indeed exceptionally green when the pic was taken as, due to a power failure the pump had been off for three days  :Smile: 

Fish don't seem to mind though !

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## Loy Toy

[QUOTE="dirtydog"]can only assume these cows are destined for the bbq. 

Must of looked like a Monty Python sketch mate especially when the cow in her distress escaped the fire and nearly drowned herself with you panicking on the foreshores.  :rofl:

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## dirtydog

I wasn't panicking, I just didn't want a dead cow in my pond, and aint noway I was going to help her out of the pond, dumb thing would probably have got me drowned  :Smile:

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## Nawty

Why not fence it and open a hunting park....charge people to fish and shoot cows.

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## dirtydog

^It's less than 2 rai, a lot of the time the cows just lay there whilst you walk past, wouldn't very sporting really would it, not even enough room to get a "ute" in there to bother chasing them around before shooting them.

So I got a few more days work before its all looking tidy so I need to think of a plan on what to do next, I think an outside toilet, the concrete bbq area and the bit over the pond should be first, at least then when the house is started there will be a toilet for the staff and a shaded area for storage and pre fab.

I still have a few problem areas round the pond and need to decide where the second smaller higher pond will be, but what would be a smart move would be to pump the water from deep in the main pond, up onto the roof tiles, let it go into a gutter which feeds a waterfall into the small pond which in turn overflows and feeds back into the main pond.

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## a. boozer

> Why not fence it and open a hunting park....charge people to fish and shoot cows.


If D.D. runs out of bovine beasts, can always provide the address of my first wife, can't think of a larger cow!

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## Happyman

> ^It's less than 2 rai, a lot of the time the cows just lay there whilst you walk past, wouldn't very sporting really would it, not even enough room to get a "ute" in there to bother chasing them around before shooting them.
> 
> So I got a few more days work before its all looking tidy so I need to think of a plan on what to do next, I think an outside toilet, the concrete bbq area and the bit over the pond should be first, at least then when the house is started there will be a toilet for the staff and a shaded area for storage and pre fab.
> 
> I still have a few problem areas round the pond and need to decide where the second smaller higher pond will be, but what would be a smart move would be to pump the water from deep in the main pond, up onto the roof tiles, let it go into a gutter which feeds a waterfall into the small pond which in turn overflows and feeds back into the main pond.


Exposing the water to sunlight in a thin film , over the roof tiles ,will lead to a buildup of algae- especially if there is fish shit in the warer !
The centrifugal filter in the pond I showed produces about 30 kg of sloppy sludge  in a couple of weeks, which is pumped out and used in a feed to the lawn sprinkler system. It smells for a day or so but the grass is thriving !! :Smile:  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

I can clean the roof off once per month, that aint a problem considering the benefits of keeping the house cool, I mean come lunch time roofs are so hot they burn your skin, the pond will need the pump on a couple of hours per day, may aswell pump the water a slight bit higher and use it to my advantage  :Smile: 

The poxy cows are eating everything they can, these buggers are even trying to eat the bark off of the trees they are so damn hungry, so I am now going to try and fence off an area that I can start growing plants, yes i know I could go out and spend thousands of baht buying 100's of plants, but I think a few hundred baht on seeds is a better idea, I mean I probably need about 10,000 plants in total, so start with some seeds and use those plants to make more baby plants, thats my idea anyway  :Smile: 

This is where the seeds will be planted, far back right is where the water comes into my land, it sort of meanders into the pond on the left, so I have to dig troughs every 30 to 60cms I suppose to keep the whole area damp, but at least this way its just a plant and forget about them type thing, no watering the poxy things every day and the soil is really good there, loads of fish poo in it.

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## dirtydog

One of the main features of the land is the Australian toilet, this will be staying here but will have walls so normal people can use it, one of the toilets will go though, this will be one long building seperating the land from the wall to the pond, ie the toilet, store room and car port.



From the house side of the land it will just look like one long building, 3 doors some windows and glass blocks, although will probably try to hide most of it with plants.

This is what it looks like now once you have walked through what will be the car port door.

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## dirtydog

This is quite a nice area of what will be the garden but I have a couple of problem spots, first this is where the water from my land runs off into the next guys pond, obviously in heavy rains this run off which is about 2 meters wide could suddenly collapse a couple of meters into his pond, so I need to strengthen it up and have a way to regulate it a bit.

Nice big shade tree of some sort.



So, yesterday I started chucking in bits of concrete, old marble and granite and any other hardcore I could find, today the pond is about 5cms higher, this is not something I wanted, it does need rubble bedded into the dirt to strengthen it up, and then it needs a concrete weir built of some sort to protect the whole lot from collapsing, have to see how well the rubble gets tramped down by the cows and that.



This part there is no path way and is also another potential weak point, so today was spent bagging up concrete rubble and chucking it in there, the pond there is about 4 meters deep so probably needs about 8 cubic meters of rubble at least in there, as this is right by where the weir will be I may extend the dirt out a few meters into the pond just to help protect that area and make a bit of a feature of it.

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## Happyman

http://www.manufacturefrance.com/doc...20CUSTOMER.pdf

This could be a not too expensive solution while things are settling down  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

^Can't view pdfs at the moment.
So I am still bagging up rubble everyday, each bag has to be carried about 40 meters, it does seem to be nearly there, ie filled in, I can see the top of the rubble in the water, no doubt when I put the last bag in the whole lot will collapse another couple of meters.

Yesterday I got the first lot of fruit from the land, it isn't ripe yet but the cows are starving so are now biting down the trees, I saw the banana tree go down so rushed in there to get the only bunch of bananas before they could eat them all, today I was down there again and all they have to eat is mud, now you know why Thai cows aint fat  :Smile:

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## dirtydog

Now most of us have a hoe or 2, infact I have quite a few, got to admit i never thought of looking after them though, just use and abuse them, I have no idea how many hoe's I have bought over the years but they have all been used for mixing cement, for mixing cement you don't need a sharp hoe.

So a couple of days ago me and my favourite hoe went down to the land to do some hoeing, this is where the plant beds will be so I wanted to make it like a farmers field, little troughs and that, blunt hoe's just don't cut it, think I done about a meter of trench 15cms deep before I realised, so I took my hoe home.

Here's some of my hoe's and friends.



Miss Hoe meet Mr Angle Grinder.



Take some of that you hoe.



Now my hoe's are nice and sharp and hopefully tomorrow i can do the irrigation ditches.

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## dirtydog

Back to working on the land, today I took a load of evergreen bedding type plants down there, there I was standing by the pond with a bunch of plants in my hand deciding where to plant them when I suddenly noticed something squirming in my hand  :Sad: 



Poxy bloody leeches, there were at least 2 of them, don't forget these plants came from my little front garden in Jomtien town, not some bloody jungle in Nakhon Nowhere, absolutely disgusting,

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## dirtydog

Well the bit of pond with the collapsed pathway is nearly built up again, probably could do with another cubic meter of concrete rubble but doubt I have that much left on the land now, still got all thos q con block cut offs but need to mis them with cement to get the poxy things to sink.



Here's a picture of the small plot of land that is up for sale, all nice and bare and tidy, although the cows don't seem to be coming back so no doubt it will turn into jungle again in a couple of months  :Sad:

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## mellow

How about some updates on this project DD ? Been almost 3 months.

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## dirtydog

The cows are gone and the land is reverting back to jungle  :Sad: 
I went there a couple of days ago to decide on my next plan of action, it was a bit of a shock to see how quickly the weeds etc claim back the land, I don't really want to spend hours there everyday gardening, I think I may start concerntrating on concreting areas, it's either that or buying a cow  :Sad:

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## mellow

Could just finish it, put in a few water Lilies, an assortment of fish. It will take of itself.

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## Nawty

Yeah concrete it all in......get some white gnomes and some angelic italian looking statues.

I saw this guys pond near our house yesterday, it looked like a scene from iceland, iceberg drift. They had thrown all the offcuts of qcon blocks into the pond and they completely covered the surface now.

I read somewhere about some other knob that did this.....sheesh, would hate to be him.....as stoopid as a Thai....

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## Nawty

Buy a couple of goats, they eat anything, not as picky as a cow and just the right size to bbq later.

With the right anesthetic and some needles and thread, you can cut off one leg at a time and bbq it, keep the rest fresh for later.

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