turnpike

When she finishes sweeping, does she store the broom upside down balancing on it's end?

mine rides hers to the market...

That little whispy Asian broom is the BEST tool for tile floors in this country. Gets in the cracks and under low racks/shelving better than any western-style brooms or relatively bulky vacuum attachments.

And, if you've ever picked up the little broom yourself (stop shuddering) and done a quick once-over of your own floor, you'd be amazed how much NEW crap drifts into you pristine little home every hour, on the hour. Thailand is a pretty dirty country and that air carries a lot of dust and dirt from the environment. A five-minute once over every few hours is a small price to pay for having a clean floor where your bare feet doesn't pick up gunk between your toes when you walk across the room.

You guys doing all that complaining oughta try it yourself a time or two and you'd see why your wife does it with the tool she uses and why so often!

TT

Bachelor in Isaan

one vote for you, toptuan.

plus, i like how they sweep away from themselves, as opposed to sweeping towards yourself. why stand in the middle of the dust storm when you can stand on the outside edge of it. i also like how the real professional sweepers can get 2 brooms going at the same time.

so people, if you want to buy a "proper" plastic western broom for 300 baht, go for it. don't think for a minute that it's bristles don't hold a lot of crap.

i'd sooner buy the cheaper compost-able thai broom for 50 (?) baht.

...never realized i felt so strongly on this topic.

Many thanks for that. I will star to build up the compost heap and let it just sit for a few months.

glad to help.

currently in harvard university just finishing up my term paper on the advantages of elephant manure, taken me 3 years of hard research and i.....

who am i kidding, i just googled it.

U2 & Mary J. Blige - One

i've watched it likely a hundred times since i found it on youtube. (not the live versions, but the b & w made for tv one)

that's some powerful sh*t.....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2339624

there's a small snippet in this article that says it's "highly prized by garderners".

no other info, but hope it helps.

http://mailman.cloudnet.com/pipermail/comp...rch/011897.html

this ones got quite a bit more info, actually.

A bit of a sorry state, with so many guys involved in relationships with women they can hardly communicate with. Unfortunately, not a lot of options here. The majority of univ grads in LOS have little or no English skills. Even some of them I have known, who are graduate English majors, still are thinking and speaking "Thai style". Fortunately, I have a couple ladies who speak excellent English, have quick minds and pay attention to what is being said and are able reply with answers related to the topic being discussed.

well, aren't you the lucky one.

don't you see that about all the posts here are in fun? my wife's english will always be 1000% better than my thai. i've only been married once (to my thai wife), just turned 50. i've been in a few long term relationships with western gals, and without trying to slag them, i've never ever been able to communicate so openly as i have with my thai wife.

i'd say it's "a bit of a sorry state" to see one take this thread so seriously.

wife was talking this morning about her father's "pay attention".

she was referring to his pension.

wife was talking this morning of her father's "pay attention"

she was actually referring to his pension.

still, her english is 1000 times better than my thai.

The plants look like young (less than a year) old. I would plant as received as the root system is what needs to develop. The plants go into a dormant stage (no new shoots) and the growth above ground will cease to grow, this is when root system gains growth for the following season. Asparagus does very good in sandy soil so if using a raised bed you may want to consider adding sand into your mixture. Those plants look nice. Like you I only planted root, but did divide mature plants by digging up part of the root with growth like your picture and transplanting. This worked good the few times I did it. Good luck

thanks for the reply, slapout.

i figured that would be the way to go but always nice to have confirmation from some kind soul.

i've never grown the stuff ever, but i love to eat it. if i can get a good crop in the next 2 or 3 years, the next step is to get some good jars from somewhere and pickle them. tough to beat an ice cold vodka, tomato juice with a couple shots of tabasco and worshestshire (sp), salted and peppered drank from a tall cool glass with a salted rim with a nice big sprig of pickled asparagus.

thanks for the help, any other tips from asparagus growers, well, i'm all ears.

tp

wifey bought 50 of these at the khon kaen farmer fair.

normally i can usually find all i need to know about planting something such as this on the internet. but all the info i have read so far only deals with the planting of the "crowns" or roots.

do you think i should plant these as is? or should i cut the tops down to the roots (almost) and plant them as instructed in the info i have read.

and another question...do these plants produce year round? or is there a season for them.

already got my raised bed planned (12" +/-) to get the plants off of the clayish soil i have. will start on that when i get home in 9 days.

thanks in advance for any help.

tp

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Success-Failure-t331410.html

heres a recent topic in the farming section, might help you some.

i'm sure if you do a further search there, you'll find a lot more helpful info.

hope it helps,

tp

i've had very limited success with seeds brought from canada, but sunflowers do quite well. if you find a good garden center, you will likely find at least a dozen or maybe a lot more sunflower varieties. they come in all sizes, shapes and colors. although he likely wouldn't be able to sell the flowers, he would have seeds forever to replant.

eggplants seem to do well here, many varieties to choose from. i've had luck with tomatoes but took me 3 years to get it right.

just my $ .02

goggsie,

take a wander over to the farming forum. there's a wealth of info there on small gardens, it's not just big farms being discussed there.

good luck,

tp

Which Brandywine are you growing? From what I've read, the BW OTV can handle

heat better.

Have you tried any of the 'black' Russian toms?

rice555

rice,

i'm on the rig right now, but i think my brandywines were just plain old brandywines, i can't recall aything else written on the pack but i'll check when i get home. never tried the black russians, but they're high on my list. i believe they're heirlooms, no? here's a sight for tomato junkies like me, it's pretty good actually.

http://tomatoville.com/

also planted some black beauties, wifey says they're up. i've planted them before, and they've done well.

cheers,

tp

my thanks for all the replies and help.

gotta love this place......

computer idiot here.

i've recently discovered the wealth of music vids on youtube. i foolishly thought i could just download 'em (easy part) and then put 'em on a cd. but these bloody flv files won't allow me.

does anyone know of a free tried and tested program i can download to convert these tunes? or maybe a good one i can pay for online? (rather not, i'm cheap, but..)

i've got almost 500 videos parked in my external h.d., but i'd like to have 'em on a cd.

thanks in advance for helping this fool.

tp

Or maybe they wanted you to organize everything, including hiring the car, getting it decorated and hiring the dancers?

You didn't say if they wanted you in the parade as the sacrificial goat to their local diety, or for you to organize the whole shebang out of your pocket for them.

that was my first thought too, actually...

Hello turnpike, thats some else's bells, I think in FL., it is an example of using cane fields as a wind break.

All the bag stuff is mine, it's just coir.

rice555

here's a couple of my recent successes. the one on the left is a marmande and the one on the right is some kind of oxheart. both from croatia. i've become freaking crazy about growing tomatoes. i've planted a bunch of seeds from home (canada), brandywines, sweet 100's,husky gold and a couple others i can't remember. wifey says they are poking up thru the dirt in the small pots i've started them in.

about this coir? you mean thats all thats in the bag? or is it mixed with soil. and where do you buy this stuff, is it cheap?

thanks in advance for any help/advice

tp

rice,

nice looking operation you got there by the looks of it.

i'm bitterly jealous. lovely looking soil.

makes my little 2 rai hobby garden look rather medieval....

love looking at pictures of other peoples gardens. keep 'em coming.

as for my experience in relation to this topic, i've had mostly failures, although any and all sunflowers grow well (theres dozens of varieties if you didn't know) and i'm having small victories with tomatoes this year. where i work (offshore india) theres nationalities of all kinds. i've got eggplant from indonesia, bell peppers from india, tomatoes from croatia and denmark, plus snake gourd,okra and some unidentified seeds from india.

funny when i was a kid, i hated anything to do with the garden, now i can't wait to get home again and get my hands dirty. come on febrary 5th!

I'll be staying in Pattaya for a few weeks with my mate and we are both partial to a can of pop now and then. Does anyone know how much a can of sprite is?

you guys sound like quite the party animals...

Russ,

Go buy some Isaan beer and chill out.

but if you drink too many, leave the Nissan parked and get a ride home....

Currently focusing on protien for the chickens - in the form of maggots.

the above could use it's own thread, if others are interested.

read this a few years back, got me interested,but of course never followed up on it.

http://public-library.ponics.org/documents...-experience.pdf

protien out of thin air!

Compared to China, where I lived for two years, cutting in line here is nothing!!!!!!!!!!!!!

try India

never been to china, other than the airport in hong kong. but i've been to many places.

but the absolute worst place i have been for cutting in line is india....no other place comes close.

i can feel my blood pressure rising as i type this....

Dlock,

looking fwd. to seeing this project take shape. i dug one about 3 years ago,20m by 20m,about 5m deep. it started with only about 1/2 m of groundwater, but fills up to the brim every wet season and only drops to about half at it's very lowest.

looking back, wish i'd have dug an a-typical shape like yours. i guess it was my upbringing on a farm where the fields were square and the rows HAD to be straight.

just curious, what kind of fish are you planning to stock?

rgds,

tp

Wiggle - in Thailand the question is not which is best, but which is in most abundance - this wil determine your honey yield. The bee its self cares little which flower it is, so long as there are enough for her to source both her immediate energy requirments and excess to store in the hive.

Any vegatable flower will do, fruit orchids are great - and farmers growing fruit appreciate hives in the orchid, inclduing papaya platations - but if there is a cane field long side, or any other flowering crop with a greater abundance of flowers, then thats where the bees are going to go.

As for growing a flower or crop to support bees(?): I foget the figures but it must be something like 10 acres (if not more) of flowers per 100 grams of honey. It really is a big conversion factor whatever it is - which shows just how much work bees do during their short +/- 6 week lifespan - so as for growing flowers to attract bees: unless its some large area, the impact its going to have on attracting bee to your garden is going to be min, and then only for the few days or so that nectare is avalible for them to harvest.

Keeping a hive in the garden does though have a big impact on the amount of flowers you'll have - you'll get a lot more.

i spent 2 summer holidays working for a medium scale beekeeper in Manitoba in the mid seventies. hard work for 3 bucks an hour.

i remember when we processed the honey from hives (the boss called them "supers" for some reason) that were adjacent to mustard fields. the honey gathered from those supers had a distinct yellowish color to it.