Looking good Dennis. I am liking the "infinity" balcony....
Looking good Dennis. I am liking the "infinity" balcony....
Concrete is poured for the rest of driveway
The concrete for the walkin gate will have to wait, the storm drain is under that area, it needs to be moved as far to the outside wall as possible and either connected to storm sewer or out on street, I'll decide that when I get there.
We have a gate, the center support is backwards but what can you say.
The center support section should be installed with larger support to the inside, we told him OK just leave it for now
but install vertical steel so it looks like the gates, well that didn't happen either, I think to save money he use short pieces
and filled in between supports. I guess we'll leave it for now until we go there then I'll find someone else to turn it around
and make it look like the gates. I thought he did a good job on the stair railing but his work on the gate is way below acceptable.
He's working on the walk-in gates now, he was told they need to look the same as car gates or no payment. The gate in the back
yard I'm not to concerned about but the front one needs to be done right.
Here's another picture of what I mean about support being backwards
Here you can see if he had turned the support around it would have looked much neater on the street side
Here's the start on the walk-in gate
Walk-in gates are installed and after 2nd try they have them swinging the right way.
Front gate
Rear gate
Getting some rain Dennis. Will have some slow down but local builders cope well with rain. Coming along nicely.
Thanks Norton, not much for them to do now, will wait until we can return to check everything out and see what we want to do next, also he has several things that need to be fixed but he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to get them done, I guess that will be longer until we have to make final payment, it's one year from completion.
Was he drunk when he made that rear gate or is it the camera making it look wonky ?
Hi Fondles - It's wonky the daughter told us about it too, but I can't complain too much because it's a free door,
I already made him change the direction of swing, I'll have to take a look at it when we go there next year and see
how hard it will be to correct. Looking at the photo it looks like the posts are wider on top then on the bottom, myself
I would have left the difference in spacing next to the post not try to spread it out with the steel spacing, it makes it look
like you've had a few too many looking at it lol.
Apologies for not replying Dennis. Limes and Lemons if you can get a decent Lemon are fairly small, a good lime which can have up to 20 on at a time and pot grown could be say up to 4 feet high and 4 feet wide or smaller and can take pruning - they are more a shrub. They produce year round.
Noi Na or custard apple are very seasonal. When commercially grown they maintain them as small trees 6-8 feet high and pruned annually. My advice is that given they produce once a year ordinarily i'd give them a mis and buy them from the market in season.
One of my favourites is Pomelo. Its is another citrus shrub but grows larger than limes but not too big. They produce year round but the fruit takes months to reach full size and ripen - which i quite like for its visual appearance. Most fruit in the tropics are very sweet and imo get boring after a while whereas Pomelo is like a slightly sweeter grapefruit and has a tart edge (not face puckering like grapefruit) and that comes as a welcome change. Again easy to prune and maintain not big and the flower have a lovely perfume in the evening.
Longan and Lam Yai are larger trees when they mature, no reason whey you can't plant them but you'll need to prune, as you will all trees given your lot size.
We also have Dragon Fruit which don't take up much room, They are grown up concrete posts with an unsightly motorcycle tyre on the top but after a few yew years they completely cover the tire and are reliable fruit producers and add another visual point of interest without taking up too much room. The pic below is of a Red (internal flesh) plant we put in two years ago and its now flowering. They are easily controlled and pruned and don't take much maintenance given they are cacti.
Another possibility is Coconuts, the drinking ones. You can get nice varieties now which are low growing and produce from a low height. One palm will probably give you enough for your needs and by the time you need a monkey trained to reach the fruit you'll be long in the ground.
If it was me i'd go the smaller tree/shrub route rather than larger ones that produce only once a year, unless you are thinking of a shade tree down stream.
Does your wife like orchids? they are low maintenance and produce fantastic displays and grow well in the climate, those and perhaps a range of scented plants inc Jasmine which you'll get great perfume off in the evening and pot grown you can have them on your deck without taking up too much room.
That's my 5 dimes worth.
Last edited by NamPikToot; 07-06-2020 at 12:28 PM.
^Good stuff there Dennis and spot on. The missus has the green thumb here so when you get back have a look at what she has done at our house and where she buys in Roiet.
We are just 15 mins down the road from you.
Good grief, in my fruit obsession i forgot whats really important.....stuff for eating i'm sure Norts good lady has a small herb area, BiP has done some posts on this too. A small kitchen garden area with a Kafir Lime (slow growing and don't take up much room), Lemon grass, Galangal and of course Chilis and Holy Basil. You could get this lot into an area say 10 foot long and 4-5 foot wide and Mrs Snowbird will love picking her herbs for what ever meal she's knocking up - they are all easy to grow too.
Last edited by NamPikToot; 07-06-2020 at 01:58 PM.
Because they are a small tree, I'd like to give them a try, BIL already planted one for me, had to have him move it because he planted it too close to the wall, I'm planing a 2' wicking bed all the way around the back wall for veggie. He's got instructions now if its a tree it needs to be at least 1.5 meters from the wall.
If you need to improve your soil, which is quite likely, there is worm farm in Roi Et to get some worm castings from.....magic stuff ! Penn Worm Farm, a Thai/farang operation .... have a website and Facebook page with their location details.
Hi Mike, I heard about them before and will definitely check them out, I know worm casting are great stuff, but will want to get the wicking garden in place first. I want to set up a grey water filter to use for watering it so will have plenty to do when we go there in Jan. The grey water filter will be made up with water plants to do the filtering.
Our resident Orchid lover is Graceless Fawn, her thread below. Many of the early pages seem to have lost their Photo links but the later ones are there, its worth flicking through at your leisure as there is advice and tips on growing.
Bloom Baby Bloom!
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)