The house was everything we'd been looking for when we unexpectedly moved in December 2020 - close to school and our business, it had a nice big garden and a bath, was private in a quiet street, 3 bedrooms with AC and 3 bathrooms and a pretty OK kitchen. It even had a fab front porch for outdoor living, and was a GREAT deal at USD $267 per month. The downside? The landlady asked us to leave the garden the way she had set it up, and to pay half of the fee for the gardener who would care for it the way she wanted. We agreed, and I justified that I NEVER wanted to put my energies into a rented garden again, and that I'd be FINE for the last 2 years until my daughter left for college in Europe and I could start over on my own land, as far from the darn school as I pleased.
And it sorta worked for 6 months. Except some weeks the gardener came 4 times a week, and then other times it was 6 weeks between visits and the grass out back was over a foot tall. It didn't bother me in one way, cos the only use we were giving the yard was to walk to our improvised clothes line, but it WAS an issue for snakes.
The real issue we had was he came unannounced. And during Work from Home it was sometimes horrendous with him buzzing and making a racket with the brush cutter while my daughter was trying to take a mid term physics exam in her bedroom, or I was on an important international zoom call. I asked him politely to please NOT come unannounced but to simply message us to say when he'd be coming, half a day in advance. He sulked, pouted and quit without notice. He didn't like having his "freedom" curtailed by a white woman. Sigh.
And so at the end of the rainy season I waited for the landlady to find a replacement. Only she couldn't find one at a fair price point, so she asked me to find one. Two months later we were still looking and the back garden was 2 feet high, starting to get snakes and giving me horrid hay fever from the grass seeds.
The only thing keeping me from doing it myself was the landlady and the lack of tools. She'd sort of abdicated that one by asking me to find someone, and so I had a word to Santa. 😆 With the money we'd saved on about 4 months of no gardener, He was able to bring me some TOOLS!!
In tropical Thailand we don't namby-pamby about with silly little things like pruning shears - everything grows far too fast. So I needed a MACHETE, a LADDER for the banana trees, and a BRUSH CUTTER.
TOO FUNNY on Friday afternoon, when we went to the professional tool shop to buy them (since Santa had headed back to the North Pole and delegated to us 😆). I asked my ex-Thai husband to come with me - not cos I don't speak good Thai or cos I didn't know what I wanted, but because I KNOW after living here for 2 years that the price will be better if I bring a Thai man with me. Sigh.
I think 6 foot ladder too big - maybe you fall off with no man to help. 🤣
You need man to help you buy the petrol? Need special oil to mix. 🤣
Machete VERY heavy and dangerous for woman! You sure you want? 🤣
Need VERY STRONG MAN to use brush cutter! WE can find one for you! 🤣
I walked away with one new brush-cutter - USD $58.75 including the engine oil to mix with the petrol. One new 8 foot aluminium step ladder - USD $50. And one new hand-forged heavy-duty machete and sharpening stone - total USD $14.80.
One of the AWESOME things about Thailand is you can buy heavy-duty knives and machetes at roadside stalls on major highways, just about everywhere. They're used for thwacking coconuts, cutting kindling, chopping down bunches of bananas, dismembering bod... OOPs. 🤣 There are no restrictions on owning them.
Yup - that machete is pretty darn heavy and an AWESOME workout for the arms and shoulders. Yes, I'm pretty ambidextrous with it too! Gives a satisfying thwack.
The ladder is much needed for trimming trees away from the open roof area - it attracts snakes who go up there for the bats and the little squirrels who hang out there in the heat. And for trimming banana trees, which the garden has many. And for tidying up the frangipani trees, cutting out the thick dead palm fronds and trimming snarly tough vines which creep over the fence from the canal next to our house at an alarming rate.
Tropical gardening is not for sissies.
Notice the nice new gum boots I bought? Just in case of aggressive snakes in the long grass.
The landlady wants the back yard left as only grass. 😭 But damn it - I have some papaya trees, mulberry trees and an avocado that will "accidentally" volunteer themselves to leave their pots. And I will be making a small herb garden over the grave of our Mr Gin, not far from the back door. ALL Thai people love to eat and cook, and she'll probably appreciate the little plot of lemongrass, chili, basil, garlic, coriander & Chinese celery.
Plus she will save money on the gardener, and so will I.
Feeling delightfully sore in my 58 year old muscles after 4 hours slashing and chopping this afternoon. Happy to be staying fit in the garden 😆 and grateful for my new tools. That Santa is a pretty cool dude, no??
Come check out my Pure Thai Naturals online store
