Tarantulas,Toads and Snakes

While clearing off the over grown stubble on land we are about to move on to in the mountains of Northern Thailand we have met some of the residents.
The tarantula I stumbled across while cutting the grass. He was wandering around the long grass. Apparently it is a he as the females live in their burrows and rarely wander around.
The toad was dug up in the temporary garden, and hurriedly recovered with dirt. There also seem to be a few snakes hiding out. One of them got taken home for dinner by the fencing guys.

A temporary garden has been created against the new boundary fence. The soil isn't great. It is quite sandy which is good for drainage but it will need to have lots of organic matter added to stop it drying out so fast during the dry season. I have a lead on some cow manure-conveniently sold by the bag, so that will be a start.
Hopefully the fence will keep out the neighbourhood dogs and chickens and the odd water buffalo that stumbles onto the property.
At the end is a small shade house for the seedlings.
Slowly we are filling up the garden with veg, herbs and flowers.

The temporary electricity was then installed.

And the most important thing - water. Fortunately the land is supplied with town water, so until we can start saving rain water(for the garden) we have a good water source.
A few days ago we went tree shopping.
The start of our orchard now includes bananas, mangoes, papaya, mulberry, pomelo, lime,coconuts and kaffir lime.
Building plans are being worked on and it looks like they may start building the house in the next few weeks all quite exciting.
The weather has been great. Lows as low as 9'C and highs of around 23-25'C. perfect for working and sleeping. It'll probably get even a little colder over the next month.

Starting the orchard

As the summer progresses I am starting to see what limitations the cool climate here has on the garden. None of my findings were unexpected.
Of course the salad greens and brassicas are doing well as are the carrots, beets and peas.
The beans and summer squash are big enough to harvest though a little later than I thought. Next year I'll try growing them under plastic a little longer into the summer.

Tomatoes are flowering like crazy but no sign of fruit. I'll have to see if they make up for it in August. Looking forward to that greenhouse in the future.
The Italian and Holy basil never did grow very big. The Holy basil went to flower early on and while it looks very pretty hasn't given me many leaves to harvest.

The garlic is harvested. Considering that the garden was newly built last fall and the soil not particularly great I got a pretty good harvest.
We still continue to have lots of crab on the table and the odd fish. Looking forward to discovering some of the great fishing holes around here.

I bought a couple of apple trees last week. I now have an early apple called Early Free and a mid season apple called Gala. Even though they are on some kind of dwarfing root stock I'll have to keep them pruned regularly to keep them at the 6' height I want. I planted them hedge style - only 3' apart as research shows this is supposed to help keep them smaller.

The 3 blueberry trees I bought bare rooted in the spring are settling in well. They are Superior,Northland and Polaris.
So I have made a start with the orchard. If the gardens gets built in time I may add a plum tree or 2 this year.

  The potatoes are growing well in their grow bag as I keep adding soil to it.
The ones in the garden are already starting to die back so I think this grow bag idea is working. The somewhat dry conditions that they are growing under don't seem to bother them. Though I won't know for sure til I empty the bag at the end of the season.

I saved these marigold seeds from a friend. The flowers are small and the leaves are fine. Not sure what kind it is but it has flowered well and seems to like this climate. Next year I envision a border of them instead of the odd plant I scattered through the garden this year.

 Another new plant I grew from a friends seed is edible chrysanthemum. It has done well and I really like the taste of the leaves in a salad or stir fry. The flowers are looking good also and don't seem to have changed the taste of the leaves.

The Shirley poppies are blooming and blooming. They are so delicate looking and yet so tough.
I like that.