Thread: Greenscaping our Retirement Home in Nan Province

Cyrille has a ploblem with bent things, pay no notice

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

Thunder the chocolate Labrador has been with us two and a half weeks. He is 12 weeks old now. We let him sleep in our bedroom for two weeks in one of those big black plastic concrete mixing tubs. We moved him outside three nights ago and he coped really well. Not a peep, no wining/barking, no vengeful destruction of anything. The wife has got him walking on a lead and the only anti-social behaviour is he wees on the deck during the night. He knows his name and 'no' and 'sit'. He likes to spend time with us in our bedroom retreat during the day which tends to be the afternoon since it is hot. He is still a kid and hasn't got full control of his body...clumsy. But much to my surprise he is already demonstrating intelligence that in my experience takes a few years for a Labrador to exhibit. We love him. Twelve years was too long to wait for another dog.

Man I forgot how much our Chocolab has grown. I have had 3 labs in my lifetime. They have always been extremely intelligent and well behaved. They are however busy dogs and left alone with no distractions they always find things to get into. For me, Its funny. My wife and FIL....not so much. But their personality is always entertaining. I dug and planted some trees. Clearly I taught the lab digging is OK and then found 4 or 5 holes around the place. We have a Golden Retriever as well. She is a very sedate dog for the most part but keeping her out of water anywhere is a challenge. The dogs have definitely becomes my wife's "Children"



Our Golden watching my wife do some masonry work around the Bamboo tree



Our Lab napping with wife in the Hammock.

One of the Foxtail Palms we planted just under six months ago has died. Noticed a month ago it was looking unhappy and began deep watering it two weeks ago after a couple of weeks of extra hand watering. Didn't work. But a bit of a mystery. In deep watering it the water just seemed to be endlessly lost, we could never fill the hole it sits in up. A 5/8" hose running at half pressure, the water just kept being absorbed for hours. No idea where it is going. It was planted in untouched soil, nowhere near the old house nor any other infrastructure such as a well or old drill hole. Might get to understand it a bit more when we replace it...another 600 baht I recall.

JPR2 make SURE you PROTECT choco from the mosies.
when our boy was outside for 2weeks we bought a hatari power wind fan.set at power 2,excellent.

B.I.P. Foxtail palms don’t like too much water, they are a drought tolerant plant and the roots can rot if the soil stays wet.

Originally Posted by mikenot

B.I.P. Foxtail palms don’t like too much water, they are a drought tolerant plant and the roots can rot if the soil stays wet.

Good point. Never water them here.

Hell, lucky we kept five others alive then...been watering twice a day most days. Will stop. By the grace of God or some other deity we've had some nice soaking rain this morning. Got some senior govt folks from Nan coming to look at our homestay tomorrow because the Pua govt guy who handled our business license issue told them it was the best he had seen. So if you drove past our place this morning you would have sighted a crazy farang hosing down his driveway and carport from a load of topsoil we've just finished spreading in the pouring rain. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by Norton

Good point. Never water them here.

Well if there was any doubt that the Foxtail Palm could be saved the rain and a bit of a squall yesterday answered the question. We've had 45+ mm of rain since lunch time yesterday in Pua. First decent wet season rain.

Yeah that Foxtail is toast at least it was a small one.

How is your french drain system working?

We're having a real problem with standing water after filling in the pond and are having a contractor do a French drain to carry the water out to the river.

All of it is working NTM although the weakest point gets overwhelmed in prolonged steady or heavy rain...like yesterday. That point is on the front left (west) edge of the carport. It is not a big issue and I've got at least three solutions I could try. The first is to put in a more open sump drain to directly feed the storm water pipe rather than let the water fill the trench and then leak into the pipe. The second is to put a long narrow trench in the carport concrete and take the water down the west side of the house on the concrete apron there. The ultimate solution is to capture rain in a gutter along the front edge of the carport roof. Can then direct it one or both east or west side of the house including directing/saving some of it in rain water tanks. Collection off the carport roof is from 100 sqm of carport and 45 sqm of house roof, so there is quite a bit of water coming off there. Regards, -BiP

Originally Posted by naptownmike

Yeah that Foxtail is toast at least it was a small one.

How is your french drain system working?

We're having a real problem with standing water after filling in the pond and are having a contractor do a French drain to carry the water out to the river.

Thanks, I'll let you know how ours works out.

Was in Nan city yesterday and picked up another 30sqm of Malay Grass. The wife pulled a swift one and got it for 40 baht/sqm instead of 45. (Mind you she was on a quest looking for forgiveness after spending 79 baht on a plastic dinosaur for our Labrador puppy. Lasted 30 minutes before he started chewing small bits off it, now in the bin.)

Laid it in a number of spots in the front yard. Along the east (left) side of the drive was one. We also put some on the south west boundary (top right in the pic). Replaced the dead Foxtail Palm as well yesterday.


Extended further along the west side of the carport. I'm finding 12-15cm of fill/topsoil topped with Malay Grass soaks up a lot of water, slows it down flowing across the boundary and more importantly distributes it along most of the boundary rather than it cutting through and eroding at a smaller number of points.


Put another two rows in front of the south east edge of the carport.

We've had 48 hours of wet season rain and this little plot of Malay Grass is bouncing back nicely from the haircut the local farmer gave it earlier in the week.


Even the Manila Grass in the back yard is greening back up again with the rain. Although I suspect using this grass is going to prove to have been a mistake. Just doesn't seem that resilient nor quick growing as the Malay Grass. May put a row of Malay Grass along the garden edges and let them battle it out.

BoganInParasite
I must commend you the place is looking good.
Just a couple of comments from me as I have been watching what you have been doing so I appreciate your updates.
Firstly when you spoke about which grass to use I thought at the time that malay grass is the better. I didn't actually know what that grass was called until you posted the picture. We have it and multiple other grass growing around our place and I like it the best. To me it feels good to walk on in bare feet.
Secondly as for the haircut it got from the Thai guy I reckon you should do that all the time as it forces the grass to grow flat, I usually set my mower on the lowest setting when I cut it here.
Keep posting
Thanks

Originally Posted by BoganInParasite

spending 79 baht on a plastic dinosaur for our Labrador puppy.

I second what Ootai said. On the subject of dinosaurs, the Govt gang must have been crest fallen when they looked up the drive and didn't see one concrete brontosaurus or oversized sheep with a big smile - feel you are missing trick there and have room either side as you look down it. Give it a unique spin and put a skippy in.

No room NTP...after they endorsed my plans for one of those large mileposts, a fake windmill, homestay in love sign in large coloured letters hammered into a low rise mound, and an oversized Betty Boop manikin. I'm somewhat in awe of my business sense and modesty. Just wish there was room for a small lake with a bamboo jetty that will have fallen into the water by the second year.

Originally Posted by NamPikToot

I second what Ootai said. On the subject of dinosaurs, the Govt gang must have been crest fallen when they looked up the drive and didn't see one concrete brontosaurus or oversized sheep with a big smile - feel you are missing trick there and have room either side as you look down it. Give it a unique spin and put a skippy in.

Agreed on the lowish cutting to get it to spread ootai. And yeah, is really is a nice grass to walk on. Looks and feels cool. Going to get maybe another 50sqm over the next month and lay it strategically in the front yard. May take 2-3 years to get it everywhere but I'm prepared to play the long game.

Originally Posted by ootai

BoganInParasite
I must commend you the place is looking good.
Just a couple of comments from me as I have been watching what you have been doing so I appreciate your updates.
Firstly when you spoke about which grass to use I thought at the time that malay grass is the better. I didn't actually know what that grass was called until you posted the picture. We have it and multiple other grass growing around our place and I like it the best. To me it feels good to walk on in bare feet.
Secondly as for the haircut it got from the Thai guy I reckon you should do that all the time as it forces the grass to grow flat, I usually set my mower on the lowest setting when I cut it here.
Keep posting
Thanks

View from the front door this morning. Been raining heavily since the early hours. Now starting to wonder if the roads to Pua get flooded. We are between two small rivers, the Yo to the north and Khwang to the south. Can go either way but in both directions need to traverse some low river flats. Need to get to Nan today to lodge the annual visa extension paperwork.

I am envious.

Been trying to evict what looks like a Golden Tree Snake from the back yard last couple of days. Doesn't seem to be respecting our non-violent methods. Don't want to harm it but also don't want our Labrador puppy to tangle with it. Bloody thing seems to be able to hide in thin air.

Beautiful snake for sure. Very impressed with your eco-friendly attitude. Truly enjoy reading your greenscaping progress. Keep t coming. Cheers, Amina

Thank you Amina. Have replied to your DM. Regards, BiP

Originally Posted by Amina

Beautiful snake for sure. Very impressed with your eco-friendly attitude. Truly enjoy reading your greenscaping progress. Keep t coming. Cheers, Amina