Quick Trip

I am winding up a quick trip to my garden in Ontario.
What can you do to a garden in 3 weeks. Actually quite a bit as it turns out.
The weeds have been removed and the bare earth planted. I have sown  lots of beans, peas and sunflowers from seed I have saved over the years.Any other areas I find the space I have sprinkled alyssum seeds. I'll call it all green manure if I don't return this summer and if I do get back there may be something to harvest.
Lots of herbs growing strong- both perennials and self sown. The apple trees have lots of small apples and the flowers are elbowing each other for space, so not so many weeds there.

I may or may not be back later in the summer, but hopefully I have done enough to get the garden through another season.
Now it is time to pack for the return trip to B.C and see how the garden has fared there. I have anxiously been following the weather there and it seems like the rain fall has been adequate, so if the deer kept out all should be well.

Fence finished

Finally with the help of some friends we finished the fencing that is to keep the deer from devouring my garden. There are a few finishing touches to be done but the gate is in place and the garden should be safe when I go back to Ontario for a few weeks.

A final touch to the job was a sculpture done by John Leonard using some of the interesting drift wood we found on our excursions.

The garden is growing, though some things are doing better than others. The plastic came off early and the basil didn't like that one bit.
But we are harvesting lettuce, radish and pac choi, so the cold isn't bothering them at all.

The cilantro I wintered over are flowering, so lots of seeds for future plantings and curries.

A generous layer of the local sea soil compost has been applied to all the vege beds. That should set the gardens up for the summer.
Finally we had some rain. Six weeks with almost none! Hopefully there will be enough over the next few weeks while I'm away to keep things growing. At least the deer will be kept out.

Fencing out the Deer

One of the big changes around here is that the wood to build our deer fence finally arrived.

So we have been busy building a lovely cedar fence along the 2 road frontages. The building is on the 3rd side. On the remaining open side we have put up bird netting supported by T bar posts. Hopefully that will do the trick until we finish fencing in the remainder of the property.

The raised beds continue to be built and I am slowly planting them with seedlings I started a month ago when we arrived here.
The raised beds are 12" high and built on the lawn. Then I put down a layer of cardboard and fill the beds 1/2 full of some local screened top soil. In the near future I'll get in a load of compost and top the beds up with that.
The climate here is a bit of an unknown to me. On one hand there is no danger of frosts, but it does stay cool with the odd very chilly windy day. So I will be learning what will survive at this time of the year and what should wait.
Always fun to learn.

B.C Spring

Back in Canada we are enjoying spring weather. A nice contrast to the sweltering days we were having in Thailand.

This is the first spring we have experienced on this new property in B.C.

The spring show has been beautiful with the flowering cherry and the rhodos putting on a brilliant show.

The plants I brought out from Ontario last fall have for the most part put down roots and survived their first winter here.

We are still waiting for the wood to start building a deer fence.(Ordered it 9 months ago, but hey we are working on island time here).
In the mean time we are putting in new raised beds that will be surrounded with bird netting that will hopefully also deter the deer.

I've also started a lot of seedlings. A plastic covered mini hoop house is protecting the plants until they get big enough to be transplanted. At least it helps me feel I am making progress on the gardening front.

The lilac tree that I've been threatening to chop down is now putting on a wonderful show. It is in the wrong place, but maybe if I give it a hard chop back it can stay around for a little while longer.

New Beginnings

It is getting hot these days in Thailand as we head into the hot season.
That is why I am so excited to be moving to a beautiful town in the mountains. At 1000 meters above sea level the climate is lovely.
We are heading for Canada in a few weeks so the move won't happen til we return in October. But already I have lots of gardening plans.

The panoramic views are incredible of the mountains, valleys and nearby village.

Last season the land was used to grow tomatoes. Now it is a meadow, so the 1 1/2 acre field is wide open for landscaping choices. There are a few trees at the lower end of it and 3 mango trees at the top end. The property slopes gently to the west.
I can see lots of tree planting in my future.

Market days are very colourful and are well attended by the numerous Hilltribe people that live in the area.

The next few months will give us time to put some ideas on paper.

Of course my new garden development plans in Sointula (British Columbia) will keep me busy as we head into my first spring there.

Exciting times!

India and Nepal

We have just returned from a month travelling in India and Nepal.
Business took us to Delhi in India. Delhi is always such a chaotic place.

The markets are fun to wander through though, and we always stock up on tea and spices to take with us.

I always enjoy Nepal and Kathmandu.
Kathmandu didn't seem to suffer that badly from the earthquake, but walking around the villages outside the city the devastation was much more obvious. You can read more about our experiences here.

Here a woman is carrying fodder home for her goats and cows.

Life goes on-weeding the potato patch,

and carrying compost to the fields in preparation for planting.

Due to a blockade at the Indian border there was a shortage of cooking gas, so many people went back to burning wood in their clay stoves.

Time to harvest the potatoes in this village.

In spite of the earthquake and the blockade at the border the people are getting on with their lives and there is a sense of optimism and cheerfulness in each of the villages we travelled through, that I for one could learn something from.

In search of coffee

We have had visitors staying with us for the last few weeks and have had fun exploring and showing them our favorite places.
Not far from us, up Doi Inthanon mountain a bit, there is a Karen village we like to visit.
It is a typical quiet dusty village filled with small gardens, pigs and dogs and where they also grow lots of coffee. After the required coffee tasting we bought a sack full of coffee beans to roast in our roaster.

In a walk around this village we discovered other things going on like this woman with her back strap loom weaving a length of colourful cloth to make up a typical top that the men and women wear here.

Drying in the hot sun we found a deck full of cabbage leaves and this tray full of colorful chili peppers that glowed like jewels.

A few days later we spent a couple of nights at Bodge and Yas.

The early morning light reflecting off the pond that the guest house looked over was pretty magical.

Another Karen village we like to visit has a large Royal agicultural project going on.
This is my favorite time of the year there because the mulberries are starting to ripen.

Fingers were covered in the red juice by the time we finished grazing on them, and washed them down with some thyme and rosemary tea.

The manager-MonTon and his wife Ohn live up there. Ohn does some lovely paintings of village life. We already have a number of her art pieces on our wall,but we couldn't resist buying a few more pieces.

As well as the herbs, cabbages, lettuce and fruit, they grow coffee in this village.
We bought a few more kilos.
Time to start roasting again and have a taste test.

After all this investigating we had worked up an appetite, so we started cooking with MonTon and Ohn, and created a feast.

The last few days a very strange weather pattern moved in bringing cold weather and rain. In Thailand we don't usually complain about the cold but we were up in the mountains and the high for the day was 9'C. We certainly weren't prepared for that!