I reloaded the photo. Jasmine is the small flower you get in the flower garlands
Attachment 50355
(Don't know why the picture shows as an "attachment".)
Attaching jasmine garland picture again, doing that same as many times before... (why it changes to attachment?)
How to Grow Oats | Backyard Gardening Blog
Might be useful if the, "Red Rust", arrives.
Series 4, "The Last Ship"
Looks as though yellow squash will be running out my ears before summer. Don’t laugh at the tomato cages training the plants. Didn’t have any idea squash were supposed to be planted on their own mound.
Trying for a couple of artichokes. Probably too hot and humid here for them to bud up but will be interesting.
Kit are you sure they are Artichokes? never seen leaves on them like that in the UK - different in the US?
That’s what the package said!
Sorry long day, my bad. Getting my A's mixed. Artichoke yes, looks OK - you do know they are pain in the arse to prep for not much reward. The other A is Asparagus and after a few years you'll get repetitious loveliness - its beyond the rubbish you buy in the shops (just be prepared to eat it for a couple weeks or give some away) Your soil looks really nice and loose and if you dig some shit in Asparagus will love it - but don't harvest for 3 years, let it get established.
^ You are right. I should have planted asparagus instead of artichoke. Artichoke isn’t that big of a pain to prepare and I find them heavenly but I doubt they will make it to bud here. Asparagus is apparently easier to grow in this area. Didn’t know it would take three years to harvest. Hope I’m not going to be here that long!
(Sniff sniff..I want to go home to Chiang Mai.)
Kit, you can harvest earlier than three years. You need to prepare a large bed if you can say 10-15 foot by 5-6 foot minimum, larger if you have space. Now plant it and if you plant a lot you can start from year two but remember the plant is trying to store and build energy in roots for flowering which is your asparagus tip - let the first year grow and de-head before seed and it'll die back and suck all the goodness back for next year - do again and a third time if you can- looks like you have space so plant a good sized bed but remember let some grow or you'll weaken them so rotate cutting annually.
It's very hot here recently with only the occasional heavy shower. Not much to show in the garden with only mangoes and bananas in fruit at the moment.
The one thing my extended visit has allowed is the building of compost heaps again. I'm not sure if anyone else has had luck trying to teach Thais how to build them and the benefits. All I have had over the years is excuses: they're smelly, they attract snakes, the dogs dig them up, it's too wet, it's too hot. They burn greens and put plastic on the compost pile, they...enough you get the picture, I have failed to convince them.
Anyway I have managed to build four since mid-March in the hottest, driest conditions you can imagine.
From the left, the first three are made only from household and garden waste with straw as the brown. The one on the right was made yesterday from peanut plants and straw. I haven't used any manure, but have added some soil to cover the household waste before adding the straw. Second left is the oldest and started mid-March. It should be ready by the end of May for mulching and maybe even ready to bag for September/October when we grow vegetables. The others are two and 4 weeks behind. The last one will probably rot down quicker because of the amount of greens that the peanut plants provided. The wife has been cooking and drying mangoes so there was plenty of green matter to make up the other piles.
I build them around a bamboo stick so that they have a hollow centre. This allows me to stick my hand in to check how hot they are and when to turn them as they cool down. Apart from the last one, I have built them up gradually as I get the material and dogs have left them alone.
It's all too easy and yet I am looked at as if I'm a mad man and when they see the results they just say it's because I'm rich...quite sad really.
I have 1 simple mulch pit hole that I put all my lawn, weed trimmings and tortoise crap in. I add a layer of dirt, water and cover with my black tarp. Its been an ongoing thing for a few years now and my wife uses it all the time for her planting. The key for me has been, a good layer of the trimmings, water, dirt, cover. It steams up nice accelerating the decomposition process. When I turn it over every month or so it is loaded with earth worms. Its just enough for our needs.
Not a lot of wild-life in my garden these days.....
Seems Bruno has just mastered the art of killing pigeons and those that fly in to eat his food.
I just shovelled two carcasses into the Klong.
^ Our dogs kill the occasional pigeon, and then eat them. I just find a little of pile of feathers to mark the crime.
My Lab stalks the few pigeons that land in our yard with great success. She parades around with it in her mouth then drops it at my feet. I toss it in the trash. Sadly I think a neighbor has these birds as pets and he lets them fly all over. I have popped a few of them that land on my roof. Pigeons are flying carp. They are shit birds and make a mess and are very difficult to eradicate . When I fly my drone the high frequency noise of the blades seems to really irritate them and they start circling around it but are not sure what to do.
The bird my Lab really hates is Mynah birds. Man they really fire her up. They are smart and she has been close a few times but no success.
I cut the bottom off a plastic rubbish bin and put it into a shallow hole, maybe a couple of feet deep. All the chicken dropping go in there, along with any organic waste that the chickens don't eat - that's not a lot and mainly comprises onion and potato peelings and citrus fruit peel. In the dry season it just needs watering occasionally. As the compost rots down I pull up the bin a bit and shovel out the bottom layer of compost. This has worked really well for years and makes enough compost for several raised veggie beds.
I need to keep the lid on the bin as otherwise the dogs will be in there in an instant. It doesn't matter how well they're fed, they still love to chew on a rotting mango stone covered in rotten chicken shit.
Have you tried peeing in it? An old gardener told me years ago that pee was a great additive to compost. I think he was telling the truth, not just taking the piss, so to speak.
I have recently started a small compost heap in a discreet corner behind the house. I'll find out soon if the additive works. Always assuming that I don't get arrested first....
After some discussion with the wife (and a hostile neighbor event that my wife engaged in) we decided that now was the time to finish putting the hedges along the side section of wall. This decision was also decided as we are done growing banana trees due the constant mess and you just can't eat 50 banana's in a few days.
We contacted the nursery in Lop Buri that we bought the others from 5 years ago and they were coordinating a run north. So I had 3 days to dig 55 holes. Now one might say...Just hire a guy to do it. Personally for me, I like the exercise and with me being at home working remotely this gave me a good project.
First section of holes. I called the nursery to get the dimensions so I knew in advance. They are spaced 40cm apart, 30 Cm down and 30cm in diameter. The Hedges coming are ~ 2 meters high.
Well today the truck showed up at 6:45am. (They promised by 7am) One thing I have to say about this nursery, these guys are top notch. Always on time, hedges and shrubs are in excellent health, well watered and clean.
I helped unload the truck as they had 2 more stops with 2 trucks and had 435 hedges to deliver including ours
I got them all staged by the holes and my FIL jumped into to help plant them.
Side view of distance between wall and hedge. I try and keep them about a body width off the wall allowing access to trimming later.
Hedges all in. Having the holes prepped in advance made this a cake walk plant. Took my FIL and I about 1.5 hours to plant them all. If one is wondering what that black bucket of water is, That my Golden Retrievers swimming pool, She gets hot and goes and sits in it for an hour.
If all goes well, They should grow large like these I planted 5 years ago and not only offer some nice greenery but excellent privacy
Nice Japper, soil looks nice and friable - ours has quite a lot of stone and clay. I take it the hedge is therefore to block the neighbour out.
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