Thread: What's in your garden?

Originally Posted by Stumpy

e fkr. My FIL always eliminates them when he comes across them as he says they are mean, lay alot of eggs and can create problems.

Are they mean ?

Not being chinese, I'd never kill them

They do take care of a lot of creep

Originally Posted by helge

They do take care of a lot of creep

Do they, that's good to know, i have a creep i need to get rid of.

I actually like them, they come in a great range of colours but as Mendip found they are feisty little sods, Mrs won't go near them

Originally Posted by malmomike77

I actually like them, they come in a great range of colours but as Mendip found they are feisty little sods, Mrs won't go near them

I like them too Mike. We have a couple in the garden and they often call to to each other in the evenings. I like their call.

After my experience with the baby I wouldn't like to get bitten by an adult but I can't see how that would happen, unless I wiggled my fingers in front of one.

Originally Posted by Mendip

I like them too Mike. We have a couple in the garden and they often call to to each other in the evenings. I like their call.

After my experience with the baby I wouldn't like to get bitten by an adult but I can't see how that would happen, unless I wiggled my fingers in front of one.

Good to have them around, as they clean up things - sort to speak.
Some traditional circles find them to be of good luck.....regardless of their alien-like nature.

Has anyone managed to get a Thai to build a compost heap? I have shown family how but they are not interested.

Smells...no it doesn't
Attracts snake...nope
White man's magic...whatever.

I bought them a garden shredder a couple of years ago but they only use it to cut grass for the cows.

Anyway, after a month, I have a third compost pile and veg in the garden again.

Originally Posted by Stumpy

The thing was HUGE

Originally Posted by Mendip

I wouldn't like to get bitten by an adult but I can't see how that would happen, unless I wiggled my fingers in front of one.

Fingers ofcourse being the lesser of two evils

Originally Posted by Mendip

pomelo tree.

Have you ever got fruit from it? Mine is about 7 years old and 12 feet tall. Nada.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Have you ever got fruit from it? Mine is about 7 years old and 12 feet tall. Nada.

dirk diggler
We have a couple of Pomelo trees in our yard and they were there for years (7+) and never gave any fruit.
Then when I retired and started watering them heavily they started fruiting. As the last wet season was very wet they fruited well again.
However they seem to drop a lot of the fruit before it ripens.

So before you pull them out and start again try giving them lots of water (and I mean lots) and some fertiliser.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Have you ever got fruit from it? Mine is about 7 years old and 12 feet tall. Nada.

We had three before a garden re-org and they fruited profusely, the problem was too many fruit and you had to keep taking off the new ones to give the shrub, i wouldn't call them trees, a chance to put energy into the few you want to mature. Even so ours were about 2/3rds the size of the ones you see in the shops but the inside was OK. Its one of my favourite fruits in Thailand and makes a nice change for the other sweet fruits which get a bit too much. The flowers smell lovely too.

Originally Posted by malmomike77

We had three before a garden re-org and they fruited profusely, the problem was too many fruit and you had to keep taking off the new ones to give the shrub, i wouldn't call them trees, a chance to put energy into the few you want to mature. Even so ours were about 2/3rds the size of the ones you see in the shops but the inside was OK. Its one of my favourite fruits in Thailand and makes a nice change for the other sweet fruits which get a bit too much. The flowers smell lovely too.

How old were they when they started to fruit?

I'm starting to wonder if it's even a pomelo tree.

Originally Posted by Mendip

After my experience with the baby I wouldn't like to get bitten by an adult

Lots of videos on YouTube. In case you paln on picking up any more tokays.

Originally Posted by Shutree

Lots of videos on YouTube. In case you paln on picking up any more tokays.

No, I'll not be picking up any adult tookays, that's for sure, Shutree.

With Spring just around the corner, today I decided to clean out the bird boxes in case the hoopoes and magpie wrens decide to come back again.

The first one was OK and the second had just three small deserted bee nests inside.



But the third was one big deserted bee nest and I had to bring the box down to clean it out properly.



There was quite a haul. I could smell honey but there was none left. I think that ants and a myriad of other insects had beaten me to it. There also seemed to be a lot of white mold or fungi-like stuff.



Ain't nature wonderful... perfect hexagons.

^ about 3 years. you're best off just taking it out and start again.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Thanks Ootai.

To be honest, it's pretty neglected and left to do it's own thing, since it's round the narrow side of my garden where the wall is close to my house.

There has certainly been a lot of rain lately so maybe we will get something soon.

What kind of fertiliser would you recommend?

I don't worry too much about what I use, usually whatever I have which can be cow shit, stuff used for rice or stuff used for Cassava. My motto being something is probably better than nothing.

Originally Posted by ootai

I don't worry too much about what I use, usually whatever I have which can be cow shit, stuff used for rice or stuff used for Cassava. My motto being something is probably better than nothing.

Not necessarily so....for fruit and flower you want something with low nitrogen but more potassium and Phosphorus, so when looking at the NPK ratios on the packet the first (N) number should be a lot lower than the other two (P and K). Too much N gives you lots of leafy growth but no flowers and fruit. The first rice fertilizer is high in nitrogen for initial growth, something like 40-0-0 or 60-0-0, so no good for fruit.
Chicken manure is higher in nitrogen than cow manure, so avoid that for fruit and flowers if you can.

Originally Posted by mikenot

Not necessarily so....for fruit and flower you want something with low nitrogen but more potassium and Phosphorus, so when looking at the NPK ratios on the packet the first (N) number should be a lot lower than the other two (P and K). Too much N gives you lots of leafy growth but no flowers and fruit. The first rice fertilizer is high in nitrogen for initial growth, something like 40-0-0 or 60-0-0, so no good for fruit.
Chicken manure is higher in nitrogen than cow manure, so avoid that for fruit and flowers if you can.

I agree with what you are saying but as I said I don't worry about it and just use whatever is around. If it lives and has fruit then well done if not then it is dead so no fruit.
I am sure that plants were thriving before we (humans) come along and tried to make them over produce by using targeted fertilisers.
From what I have seen here just about everything grows some good, some not so well and most things want to spike you with their thorns so they get no love from me.

Cow shit works, got a sack of that kicking about. cheers.

Originally Posted by Troy

Has anyone managed to get a Thai to build a compost heap?

The gf is completely disinterested in the idea. I'm not sure why, I suspect it is just her usual dismissal of anything she doesn't understand.
I have a mountain of garden cuttings. In the summer it is too wet and now in the winter it is too dry. At one point I tried covering it with a black plastic sheet which didn't seem to help much.
I'm too lazy to start digging or building anything. I figure it must eventually rot into something if the termites don't eat it all.
Has anyone seen those large black plastic compost bins, a bit like a small water tank with a door at the base?



Lazada has little bins. I want a big job.

Originally Posted by Shutree

I want a big job.

It's been a long time since I've heard someone say that!


I use a normal plastic bin with the bottom sawn off for my compost heap. I keep this is a shallow pit and periodically lift the bin a bit to shovel out the compost to distribute around the garden.

Originally Posted by Mendip

It's been a long time since I've heard someone say that!


I use a normal plastic bin with the bottom sawn off for my compost heap. I keep this is a shallow pit and periodically lift the bin a bit to shovel out the compost to distribute around the garden.

I was thinking of starting something like that and was thinking of a blue plastic barrel laying on it's side when not being filled. so that you could roll for a bout three ft. tumbling the contains.
What do you all think about that?

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

blue plastic barrel

I have one of those I bought, intending to use it as a roller to flatten newly laid soil. It was too heavy for me to move when full and not heavy enough to flatten anything when half full.
I did think about repurposing it as a composter but the top and the bottom are both sealed, only a couple of small holes in the top for filling with water. I decided not to saw off the top and the bottom for a composter because then I'd need a lid. Maybe some black plastic sheet and a bungee would be good enough?
The barrel might be bit heavy to roll. Of course for those who spend more time in the gym than I do that might not be a problem. Anyway you'd need a screw top or something which is strong enough to stay put as it gets rolled around.

Originally Posted by Troy

The government recently issued bins without bottoms, for composting, to each household in our village. Only small bins and totally inadequate for the average need. I haven't seen anyone use one yet.

I don't bother with bins or pits. There was enough material lying around the garden to make 2 heaps and start a third. I put them close to the new vegetable plot so, a) they get watered and b) the ground under them can be made into another bed.

I am using old banana leaf for browns and mixing the stalks with household waste for green. Soil and cow manure also used as I was taught never to use fresh manure directly on the ground due to excessive salt. I get the microbes as starter from global house. Weather has been good and heaps are generating quite a bit of heat.

Our amphur is on the “reduce,reuse,recycle” campaign and had a series of town meetings to teach everybody. Our village headman had a stock of old paint buckets to give out for use as worm towers to reduce food waste in the garbage. The diagrams in the info they gave out had fish carcasses and chillis going into the worm tower, not something that I would do. We are the only ones that I know of doing it. Haven’t seen any worms in there yet.
Instead of burning the grass and scrub slashed out at the farm as the family normally did, I started a compost pile instead. Green grass cuttings, leaves, rice straw and a few bags of chicken manure. It’s a cold compost so working slowly, but the original 10m * 1.5 * 1.5m row has composted down to about a third of that. Mentioned to the wife that I was thinking of getting some red wrigglers from Lazada for the compos pile and she thinks that I am crazy for wasting a couple of hundred baht !