After three weeks away, we came home to find the garden an even bigger bomb site than usual. It had been raining and my efforts to keep even a small patch behind the house at least trimmed back, had been wasted.
Time for a garden update!
On top of this, my few herbs had gone to seed and someone had decided to heavily prune the large jackfruit and rambutan trees back there. We had agreed to this and been informed of the cost but what I didn't expect was to find huge piles of branches left abandoned in situ and providing housing for all manner of local wildlife in the backyard.
I had been trying so hard to keep the weeds down to the line of coconut trees.
On top of this, there were a month's worth of fallen palm tree branches to pick up and dispose of. Just for insight, as the coconut trees I despise so much, grow taller, the bottom row of fronds go brown and drop off. Most of the trees drop one or two branches a month. They weigh very little but are around twelve feet long and obviously can't just be left lying around.
One of two huge piles of branches dumped by the cut-price tree trimmers!
Only one thing for it. Strim and burn time! I love a good bonfire but even i was a little overawed at the sheer amount of garden waste now needing to be burnt and I had to pick my day carefully. Being in the rainy season down here, I needed a couple of hot, sunny days for everything to dry out and that opportunity finally came on Saturday, which was almost Bonfire night.
The once majestic and gnarly old rambutan tree stripped back and ready to produce a bumper crop next year. Allegedly.
It's probably taken a dozen hours of my life just to get the front and back of the house tidied up and cut down, all in between downpours and on top of the normal chores and work. That's right. I do deserve a medal!
The ravaged Jackfruit tree which is fruiting again already! We just never get to try any as its no more than food for squirrels. If I had my way, I'd chop the pair of down completely. Good thing I never get 'my way'!
As for all the old metal sheeting and junk, we don't have any sort of skip hire here so at some point, I'm going to have to bite the bullet, retire to the very rear of the land and dig a big hole...perhaps a little bigger than it needs to be. 😉
Burn, baby, burn! I wish I'd have had a few bangers. It also appears I've accidentally singed a few leaves on the living tree close-by. It'll survive.
As for my planters with the herbs. The Thai basil got eaten by caterpillars, the mint went to seed and all the leaves shrank (although it's now starting to grow back) and the sweet basil never even showed itself above ground level!
I think we managed to actually eat about tens leaves and yes, I do know I have a rising damp issue to sort out some time!
The mint. From one tiny plant to this in about four months. As for the spring onions. Rubbish. They grew well to this stage and then stopped. Lots to dig up before starting again I guess.
I really thought it would be easy to grow stuff here, but I think my problem is getting planting times wrong. For most of the year its dry so I assume I need to keep things watered and damp continually, and when its wet, it's too wet. Perhaps this is why very few Thais seem to grow their own veg.
I shall continue though! I still have loads of seeds to try out including some Brussel sprout seeds I bought online and some cherry seeds that have been sat in the refrigerator for the last couple of months waiting for the weather to get warmer!
My dreams of self-suffiency, like burnt embers and ash blowing in the breeze!
That's it for now but I do retain some comfort from the fact that I'm not the only rubbish gardener on Hive and so I call upon @livinguktaiwan and @hiddenblade to post their latest gardening updates! Surely you can't be as poor as me!
Things looking a little better, at least chopped back again. The nice thing about trimming those two trees back is it's a lot brighter and there's space to finally 'do' something with the space although I tried that once, and the remains of my 'raised beds' are just visible in the centre of the picture! There is also an extra foot or so to build on top of the retaining wall we finished a month or two back.
Thank you for dropping by and I hope everyone is having a healthy, happy and productive week.
Comment rewarder has been summoned as thanks for the continued engagement and banter!
Martin
@nathen007
Lol...I would have been nervous burning down the weeds in that lush setting.
Absolutely, but the ground was still quite damp and I did have the hosepipe at the side of me just incase!
Oh no! How do others keep the caterpillars and other insects away from the plants? Did you put fertilizer in the soil? My peppers love the fertilizers and sun although it has really been so hot lately with occasional heavy rain. They are neglected though, It gets too hot in the daytime and boring to go out at night haha but they are still surprisingly blooming.
I have no idea how to keep the bugs off and yes, the soil is a good mix of compost and that soil you buy in bags at the garden centres. As for the peppers, even my Thai birds eye peppers keep on flowering and fruiting in a non stop cycle regardless of the weather or anything else.
Its a shit hobby. Soul destroying hahaha
Should maybe just stay on the pepper lane... lol just kidding! 🤣 It seems the animals around are so lucky your garden is abundant for them, even the squirrels get their tasty jackfruits! I have no suggestion as I also have no idea but it sucks haha
Thank you very much @amiegeoffrey and @ecency. Always appreciated.
Best wishes :-)
You're welcome.
In summer in Australia, after rain, it's like you have to go out with a machete. Can't even imagine in a tropical area! That's a huge tidy up but must feel satisfying.
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Thank you :-)
It feels satisfying for around 2 days, when you again notice stuff that was higher off the ground than it was the day before! :-)
You said it was almost too wet or too dry to plant anything, does this mean there are specific type of food crop that seem to thrive in this type of land area?
Ive just realised that I never see many 'salad' type crops in gardens here, only in hydroponic set ups. People seem to grow papaya everywhere and various established local fruits but perhaps Im living in dreamland to think I can create a typical English style veg plot! I just thought, the heat and wet would be perfect but obviously not!!
Hope youre having a decent week mate and have some great plans for the weekend :-)
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