All of a sudden the rainy season is here. Perfect timing for the second garden I've started in the space down the street. Where I live has quite an interesting history. The landlord's grandfather was born in India during British colonial time of Chinese descent. He ended up in Phuket as a translator for the King of Thailand being fluent in 9 languages. The King granted him a large parcel of land in what is now downtown. As he was a Catholic, he donated land for a church. Nearby is a mosque/masjid and a Chinese temple just down the street. Most of the land was sold but I live on what's left. My new garden is in a patch of unused land owned by the church bordering the mosque. More on that later. For now here's some updates on my first garden.
The space is rather limited as is the sun exposure but the plants are coming along nicely. The most important thing is motivation to start. Nice to have a garden just in front of your door. Gives a great feeling to spend time with plants and watch their progress.
The papaya has the greatest growth of the plants. I chopped the Thai arugula (I made up the name as I couldn't find the name). The leaves are spicy like black pepper and used in knom gin (A popular Thai meal). The watermelon is spreading out quickly yet no flowers yet.
Papaya has a beautiful leaf. I've been transplanting them to thin out the pack but have so many. The chickens that roam around the area got to some of the transplants. Two of them didn't survive but no worries as there are lots more.
This is the space over the garden. I chopped lots of the bamboo but plants grow quickly in the tropics and the angle of the sun changes quite dramatically.
We've loads of cats in the area. This guy is the sole resident from a recent litter. He's a real mouse killer and friendly sort. He enjoys sleeping next to the garden like a security guard.
One of the papaya transplants. They seem to go through a shock of a couple of days until deciding to keep growing or not. The chickens got to them so I put stones around to prop up the seedlings and compost on top.
Pineapple and watermelon. Phuket doesn't grow much produce due to highly acidic soil. Pineapples are very tasty here and widely grown along with coconuts and bananas. This one is from the compost pile.
Watermelon is growing everywhere. Just waiting for some flowers now.
Many different types of mangoes in this region. I didn't even plant these but they sprout up everywhere. Maybe they were in the compost pile.
My first compost pile. Cooking scraps with tea grounds mixed with bamboo leaves.
The second compost pile. Mainly bamboo leaves. That section of the garden had such hard ground nothing would grow. I'll let this settle and try again there.
Stay posted for the next weekly installment. I'll take some pictures of the second garden and see what's new in first garden. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed.
