Continuing with Weeding...

...and adding new projects~

 Here's the next section of grass I put down.  It's yellowish since I spent 3 days preparing the ground and "getting to it."

This is my papaya three weeks later.

And this is what my neighbor's papaya tree looks like bearing fruit.

It is truly enjoyable to watch these trees to grow.  It is amazing to me that everything seems to grow easily, just as long as there's water everyday! 

I've planted the garden while the grass has been watered routinely.  The green is amazing to me because at this very moment in Michigan (back home) on May 9th, it is snowing outside and got down to 20 degrees F (-7 C).  I can appreciate being able to go outside and weed, plant and water in my yard in Thailand while my house and yard just sit still back home during this Covid-19 time period waiting for me to return. You can see "Yard Long Beans" in the front, Coriander on the left (little plants), and cucumber in the back.  You can also see the nice green grass!

. 

 

When You're Working on the Garden Plot,

Adding grass sections with some extra dirt got me going again.  There are 18" by 36" sections of grass laying down nicely, but I decided to add some extra dirt to smooth out the flatness of the section for the future.  Also, the grass was not of good quality and I wanted to help it as much as possible to develop sprouts. 

I did this because the big section of the yard I already grassed over ended up being lumpy/bumpy because I was not able to help smooth the dirt before laying the grass sections down.  That bothers me when I walk on it, but what can you say when you have helpers that want to simply get the work done as quick as possible in this heat!

I'm happy getting this section down since I learned a long time ago, always start in the back because if you begin the work in the front, the back never gets done... or not for a very long time! Hahaha  So true!

this is what happens when..... you start spending time on other projects in the yard.  After getting the raised garden area going and started weeding the back yard, I spent some time walking around the yard.

What I witnessed were weeds overgrowing a perfectly cleaned and coconut chipped area in front of the house in no time at all.  Weeding is becoming a big, big job, and I'd rather still be created new places to plant than clean out areas that I've already cleaned out but here I go again...

Then I stated on the over grown bushes in the front of the house....

Then went after the purple flowers and trimmed off the tops so I could possibly re-root them.  I just put them in water for now, but the neighbor keeps telling me to stick them right into the dirt.  Hmmm.... I guess I could try a few in the water and a few in the dirt.  The truth will tell in time.

My New Garden Plot

Let's see if this works... and for how long!

I began, a couple posts ago, showing how I started clearing the back yard (small as it is, it is still a lot of work in Thailand).  Now, I can begin my raised garden effort.

 

 

What's funny is, well, there's a lot of very interesting aspects regarding this job.... is first, the grass that is sprouting in the fresh dirt, where no grass grew before!  These are fresh stalks of grass and not the kind that I have been planting~

The raised bed material is made up of something interesting; it's what Thailand has created since they mostly don't do large-scale lumbering here.  They call it "cement wood" which is made up of cement and pressed to look like slabs of wood!  Even painted, too.  I can't be sure if other material is also part of its ingredients, but I know for a fact that my helper had to cut it with a circular cement saw! 

Right now, it's the hottest part of the year and daily temperature is about 35 degrees Celsius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit.  So, I can't say it's the best time of the year to plant...  but, I bought seeds...

...and a starter tray. To keep inside and in air condition until they begin sprouting.  Maybe a month inside; maybe it'll be cooler by then, and I can water them constantly outside in the garden. 


You can see cilantro, cucumbers, watermelon and an elongated green bean.  It is a local bean, unusual to see (for us non-locals), but that's not why I'm planting them.  I'm trying them out to plant "bean sprouts" since I couldn't find any other kinds of bean seeds to plant for that purpose.

I started with this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBIYebUgVVI


and was soon told, "People in Thailand don't raise their gardens" hahahaha!

All the Little Creatures...

Great and small~

What's been interesting is learning to live with the creatures.  I've lived in enough locations around the world to become accustomed to creatures of all makes and sizes... nothing like snakes or huge spiders and such, but lizards, salamanders, snails, cockroaches, ants of all sizes and colors, and probably others.  There is nothing like the feeling of walking across fresh tilled dirt to hear a crunch under you foot from a tender snail's shell, and of course, the squish of the soft creature.  I try to be careful with nature, but when there's more than a few of them in the same area, well...

This is one of my big ones~

I never knew snail activity would be so interesting.  Here you see two snails what looks to be copulating, fertilizing eggs, pulling apart with tons of white eggs...

Besides the snails, the cockroaches simply do not like light or water.  When I water in the evenings after sunset, they go running from their safe places and scatter everywhere.  They're about 3" long, and I managed to get this shot of one on a huge chunk of celery that I tossed into the garden area.

It's not that we like to see cockroaches, it's just after living in Brazil, Africa, and China, were they grow abundantly, they don't seem to bother me quite as much!  Still gross though...

But one that's not quite so creepy is my chameleon... I think that's what it is anyway.  He's not pale looking like Salamanders, and isn't green like a lizard of sorts.

 I've watched this character grow from about 2" long.  He seems to come out now when I'm working, maybe checking me out.  I know that when I'm close by now, He stays still and rolls his eye at me hahaha like saying, "Oh, it's you again."  

The photo below was just the other day when I must have startled him, and he shot out from the green bushes and started up the reddish brown tree.  It was kind of cool to see him change, and I was lucky enough have my phone in my hands.  Look how long his tail is!  I guess I need to name him now!

Chameleon photos in Thailand: https://www.google.com/search?q=chameleon+in+thailand&client=firefox-b-e&sxsrf=ALeKk03_qafyfT1objw4TlKj8GjTjlE6Mg:1586073502471&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=3SnvNEb_oazUTM%253A%252CD9LexPUNG6M-uM%252C_&vet=1&usg=AI4_-kRxcUU9UAYCGb0J4qDMfntEFzHkcw&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiugM-d6NDoAhXIzzgGHUUxAkAQ9QEwAnoECAYQEg#imgrc=3SnvNEb_oazUTM:

Next up...  building a garden area~

 

Back to the Weeding to Put More Grass Down

I think I had more energy when I first moved in here....

This is all I got done one evening~       

 I was just happy to get it started.  The theory being, if I started in the front, I'd never get to the back!  It was really hard, I watered it for 20 minutes before I started, but the thing was, the dirt didn't go very deep.  Lots of rock underneath.  This topsoil and foundations was placed onto rock. 












 I couldn't use the ole "American style" shovel.  I had to use a Thai style shoving rod in under the weeds to loosen the weeds. This rod is make of cast iron and very, very sturdy with even hitting rocks.

 Once I was accustomed to digging sideways under the roots, it all became very easy to do, and a couple of nights later, I started round two~

But first, I needed to first move the big blue box with all the yard "stuff" stashed into it:  about 50 nursery black pots that I'd bought various plants and shrubs in; six bags of white small stones I thought I'd use for landscaping, but haven't gotten to them, so the bags ripped right apart while moving them; a hug bag of plastic bags from previous dirt and manure work and Styrofoam; and other various garden items.

Now, if you happen to see three dark blobs half way up the wall on the left, well, they're snails.  They like dark, damp places and under the big blue box was perfect for snail living.  I think I'll do the snails justice in my next blog!

But for now, let's see what else I managed to get done on my second round...

 The big blue box was meant to house the washing machine when I managed to get it (two months into living here).  Thai people usually have smaller homes and have shelters built off the back of the house for the cooking kitchen and washing machine.  You can see how the house next door extends right up to the wall with the house behind it, also extending right to the wall.  Since I've been out back in the evenings this week, I taken in the aroma of Thai cooking from both the house next door and the one immediately behind me. Not all bad!

Here's the patio from the other angle now that I've organized things:

 
Coming up next:  Snail activity, Garden with wood framing, and continuing to weed and prepare to lay grass down... Lots happening yet!


 

                                                                            

What's growing in the rest of the yard now~

I keep trying... actually, I think I keep learning~

What is interesting, as I learn and dig into each part of this yard, is what I find when I turn over the dirt.  Since no one lived in this house for the two years that it sat here brand new, it seems everyone used the front of the house to throw their trash.  Seeds that sprouted, cigarette butts remains, plastic little toy pieces, twist ties that never die, and cloth pieces (believe it or not).

You can see the pile of trash I found just in the little section in front of the rocks.  I don't mind finding rocks because I piled them in a place I deemed un-plantable.  I had to take the time in each little section of the front to clean the dirt thoroughly, so you can imagine how many times it took me to come out in the mornings before having it ready to plant!

The lemon grass was still present in the left photo, but below, I had finally gotten the right side of the front finished. 

 The plants continue to try and survive, but what I've come to realize is they need some kind of ground cover to keep the moisture in.  In the above photo, you'll see the rich, dark topsoil I added.  With the sun in full blast here, the dirt turned to powder and watering it daily did nothing for survival of the plants.

Hence, the coconut chips were the easiest and cheapest to use as ground cover. I bought them in bags at Mega Home local to me and easy to get to when I needed more.  I ended up using these coconut chips in many places in the yard, and they've worked exceptionally well, especially to keep moisture in.



 Now it was time to plant something in my cleaned-out section of the front.

I really liked the green velvet bushes when I saw them in multiple places around my neighborhood and when driving around.  The nursery had four smaller bushes and two larger ones, so I took the all.

They're growing quite well, but I'm still trying to water them as much as possible.  There's been no call to stop using it "excessively," so I'm watering everything about half an hour each evening. 

The Purple Velvet Bushes are growing incredibly well. I think I've hit the jackpot!  These are the purple flowers growing on them:

Speaking of Bushes...

I've tried a few, some have come and gone, others have lingeringly tried to hold on, and others are now bursting with growth and flowers. I started in the front of my house...

Just to give you an idea of what things looked like to begin with.  I moved in with nothing but the scrubby "lemon grass" shrubs growing.  Very sharp blades of grass-like leaves and not too appealing for looks, yet the Thai people use it for cooking and flavoring. 

There is also a tall tree that was originally imported from China.  It grows easily in any hot conditions, and I learned about this tree while living in Burundi, Africa.  China infiltrated Burundi with these trees, plastic household needs in shops, and black pavement for roads.  The Burundi people explained to me that the tree was invasive and was overgrowing other kinds of natural trees through the rooting system. 

Other than that, the reality office had the weeds and large growth cut down (not removed), so it looked fresh and new. 

I started with the left side of the front.  Silly me cleaned out the section and went about buying and planting plants without doing research as to the particular plants' needs. 

I was delighted with my work.  The bushy-type greenery in the front and white/green growth that would hope to grow into full size bushes behind them.  These offered nice white flowers in abundance (when I first bought them anyway). 

After a couple of weeks, I realized that all the watering in the world would not save these lovely plants from the sun.  Too much exposure dried them right up. 

Also, I learned the black dirt that was sold to me in bags, was not a 'natural' combination for our dirt here.  It actually helped dry the plants out.  That will be a discussion in another post.

So after a month, I dug up what was left of the bushy green growth and moved them to the 'shade' garden in hopes of reviving them.  What was left were the sickly looking white leafed stems of my dream bush.  This is what I tried next:

I guess just because plants are growing prolifically in the nursery, I thought they would grow easily at my home.  Not so!  The cute, very green and healthy mini-bush that would grow beautiful, delicate white flowers dried up in no time what-so-ever! 

None of the front row of flowing bushes were left after another month.  Again, too much sunlight and too dark of soil.  However, the purple flowering gangling stalks you see in the back ground took hold~ 

The purple flowers actually are doing quite well now and the neighbors keep telling me to cut them off the top and simply stick them in the dirt for regrowing. Apparently, I haven't believed them yet since I haven't done it... or maybe, it's because I just haven't devoted time to stop long enough to do it and take care of them. 

Just above, you'll see the stone placed in down in the front of the garden.  My neighbor watched me try to keep the dirt in every time I watered it.  In fact, he swept the dirt back in a couple of times until he offered to give me stone.  When I was ready (and had time), he came over with all this and dug it in himself.  I was so very pleased, as you can well imagine! 

This is what the purple flowers look like now, thriving.  But not until after I laid down the coconut chips to help keep moisture in.  Maybe that's what I needed all along! 

My "gangling" purple flowers thriving with the coconut chips so easily found her in Thailand.





The next photo shows my poor little white bushes (that will hopefully flower again one day) barely surviving.  Out of the original six, I now have two.