Best Time Of Year to Grow Vegetables

[bubbaba]

I have lived in Thailand, Korat area, for a few years and still cannot determine the best time of year to plant the main vegetable garden.  Sometimes I think October - November - December  and maybe January - February depending on the weather.  I started a garden one year in June and it flooded.  This year I started March and April. I am having some luck but it is too hot for most plants. I would like your opinions and what ever else you can  suggest.  I really would like to grow all of my own vegetables.

[cooked]

Mmm... Depends, same as in any country. Tomatoes won't like the rainy season, ginger and turmeric need a lot of rain, but I plant them on ridges to keep them out of the flooding. Most leaf vegetables all the year round, beans don't like the heat... 

Anyway as soon as my present crop of Chinese cabbage is finished I will be digging a drainage ditch or two along the garden and planting aforesaid ginger etc on them. 

Kabuk- will grow anywhere, any time... .

Maybe that helps?

[bubbaba]

I have in the past day or two thought up an idea that might work for year around gardening.  So I decided to add it to this post.

If one put a frame with clear plastic over the garden area as they do for green houses. Leaving the sides open for air. That would offer protection against the hard driving rain. Along with raised beds the garden would not get flooded.  However, one would have to water the garden with a system or hand water. When too hot or too much sun one could spread the green or black sun screen over the frame or just parts of it to control the sun some. Just a passing thought but might be worth trying.

[djayz]

Hi Bubbaba! 

I too live in Korat, near the Buriram border, and am an avid gardner. 

 

There are currently at least two threads (that I know of) running in the "farming" forum which deal with exactly this topic. 

 

 

and

 

 

Have a gander at these and I'm sure at least some of your questions will be answered. 

 

As for me, I'm currently growing a few bell peppers, jalapenos (thanks to rice555), squash, melons (for the first time and just as an experiment), eggplants (doing great!) and a few figs (also going great since I've transplanted them). 

 

Good luck and happy gardening! 

 

 

[rickudon]

What grows well one year may not the next ..... I have at times had success with Beetroot, carrots, dwarf beans, cabbage, radish and even potatoes (although as said often one per plant!). Reliable crops are lettuce (but not hot season), Rocket, tomatoes, eggplants, sweetcorn and okra. Have found the cherry tomatoes will grow ok in wet season if grown in concrete rings elevated above the ground (probably due to good drainage), but always get sickly pretty fast once fruiting. really hard to near impossible have been peas, broad beans, runner beans, courgettes (plants start to die at flowering stage, beware orange beetles) and spinach (just too hot). I do try to grow organically, but need lots of compost and manure, and shade sometimes.

 

Pests can be a problem (especially helpful M-in-Laws who weed out any plants they do not recognise!)