Thread: What's in your garden?

I put in a piped irrigation system and a pump and timer, great for hols too. wasn't too much work.

I don't really care that much about the tree tbh as they are a bitch to peel, but my local fruit staller doesn't seem to mind.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

they are a bitch to peel

I have a person for that. Possibly for other things too but peeling a pomelo s in the top ten.

So do I come to think of it.

Being a chef, she is far too handy with a knife for my liking.

And she has a lot of them.

Originally Posted by Mendip

shovel out the compost to distribute around the garden.

Have you been down the market to buy some compost worms ?

Compost is good, but remember that it is low on nitrogen.

Here's What Not to Put in Compost to Avoid a Contaminated Bin

Perhaps my pomelo tree is getting out of hand?

Originally Posted by helge

Have you been down the market to buy some compost worms ?

Have you seen compost worms here? I haven't. In the UK yes, here there is so little composting I wonder if anyone sells them. Another trip to Lazada I guess.

Originally Posted by Shutree

It was too heavy for me to move when full and not heavy enough to flatten anything when half full.

Did you ever think to fill it two thirds?

Try getting one with a clamp top barrel,

Originally Posted by Troy

I get the microbes as starter from global house. Weather has been good and heaps are generating quite a bit of heat.

They sell microbes at Global House? I'll take a look.

My heap is against a bank. It is about 1.5m high, from the lower side. It doesn't seem to generate any heat. As you can see, at this time of year ther is too much brown. Once the rain starts it will be too much green.

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 !

^ its best to just do stuff and show them the results, then you can keep doing it for them

Originally Posted by Shutree

They sell microbes at Global House? I'll take a look.

I buy the EM microorganisms sold in glkbal house and home pro. Works for me.

Originally Posted by mikenot

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 !

Build yourself an enclosed and partially airtight receptacle [the larger the better] and you'll find that such breakdown of composting mulch will increase ten fold - added worms are beneficial as well, yet not necessary. Best to ya...

Originally Posted by HuangLao

Build yourself an enclosed and partially airtight receptacle [the larger the better] and you'll find that such breakdown of composting mulch will increase ten fold - added worms are beneficial as well, yet not necessary. Best to ya...

Sure....but it did start 10m long, 1.5m high and wide, thats a rather large receptacle to build ! There's no hurry, so no problem if it takes a while.

Originally Posted by Shutree

My heap is against a bank. It is about 1.5m high, from the lower side.

It looks very dry. I would give it a turn and add some more green and ensure it's well watered.

The wife and her cousin decided to have a vegetable plot closer to the main house and I was tasked with making some quick compost for them. The garden needed a good tidy up and there were plenty of browns and greens to choose from. To make quickly, everything needed to go through the shredder, which has been sat idle since the last time I used it.



The ground they decided to grow the veg was so hard it needed a pick axe to break it up. I prefer to water and let it drain in before using a fork to dig but the girls were in a hurry so I left them to it. Anyway, they managed to get some veg growing...



...while I made the compost and double dug a couple of beds ready for transplanting some of their plants.



I build them directly onto the ground, about 1.5m diameter and 1.5m high when first built. I can't remember when I started putting a pipe/stick in the middle, but I find it helps when checking if the pile is heating up. I turn them after about 7-10 days.



This is the starter I use for my compost. It's been around for years and I've found it to be okay.

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

tomorrow I will go there with a Hoe, and turn the ground over. should I mix it up with cow manure, or should I.....

You should remember some cold beer, when you start working the "Isaan Cement".

Originally Posted by Buckaroo Banzai

Steady light rain all day today here in Khon Kaen, god knows we need it. It should have softened the ground, so tomorrow I will go there with a Hoe, and turn the ground over. should I mix it up with cow manure, or should I spread it around the
roots?

Put compost on top of earth, if you put it around roots probably kill plant as it is still degassing! We use the concrete rings for composting, takes about six months to breakdown.

Originally Posted by Troy

double dug a couple of beds ready for transplanting some of their plants.

Couldn't you have run the Kubota over it first?

My method is build up a large pile of mulched leaves and debris. I just started a new one last week. I water it and add dirt then cover it with a black tarp. Every 4 or 5 days I lift the tarp up and add more mulched leaves from yard work, spray with a bit of water and then put the black tarp over it. The black tarp stops any weeds from growing as they can't get sun so they geminate but die. Every 3 or so weeks I sprinkle cow shit on it with dirt, flip[ it over with a pitch fork, add mulch leaves and water then cover. I do not keep a big pile as I do not need one as we do not garden veggies anymore. My wife mixes it with soaked coconut husks and we use for potted plants and around the base of trees.

Originally Posted by Airportwo

Put compost on top of earth, if you put it around roots probably kill plant as it is still degassing! We use the concrete rings for composting, takes about six months to breakdown.

I meant,put it on the surface around the base of the plant (My fault for for not phrasing correctly) and let it seep into the ground while watering, or mix it with the topsoil
FYY, we just had , if I remember correctly, 30 trucks of topsoil delivered and spread over the property (a bit more than a rai) and I am not sure of the quality of the dirt. It looks good, but what do I know about dirt?

^ You can do either method. You can add to the topsoil a few weeks before planting, good if you are growing from seed and then transplanting into the bed. I prefer to mix in with the compost and then add that to the soil as the plants are growing. Compost can be made much more quickly here than say the UK but you need a lot more of it.

Originally Posted by Troy

This is the starter I use for my compost

I went to Global House and got my microorganisms. What do I do with them?

Stick a capful into your watering can or similar and water your compost heap. I normally add as I'm making my pile. I add again when I turn my pile every 7-10 days.