Cultivating A Garden In Phuket

[goggsie]

Hi,

I live in Phuket, by the sea and have a small garden. At present it's devoid of flora and fauna. I want a garden that doesn't take up too much of my time (1hr/day max) and I want flowers and vegetables all the year round. I'm not crippled yet, but could be heading that way, so the garden's got to be "self sustaining", so to speak. I'm going for bougainvillea "Royal Purple" to cover up some of a recently built 3.5m high boundary wall which is 25m long. I'll use the same plant along all the other boundaries I have and get it to grow up some stainless steel wire that I'll fix along the perimeter. Who can show me the way to an existing flourishing plant that I can take cuttings off (I omitted to say, I'm Scot's and really don't like the idea of spending money if it can be avoided; so it's foraging the neighbourhood for cuttings that is my game). For the rest of the wall I want to grow "passion fruit" so I need seeds from really good tasty yellow and purple varieties to plant. Has anyone got these locally?

Then I need manure. I've read the posts on "green manure" but my life could be fairly short and my gardening time and area is limited. I had an experience with pigs manure once, which converted a sickly looking clematis in to something out of "Jack and the Beanstalk"! So, don't try to convert me to green manure, just tell me where on Phuket Island I can get pigs manure! There is also a danger in cultivating green manure in a small garden, because it is an attractive habitat for snakes. Whilst I enjoy the ocassional BBQ'd snake, I don't like to encourage them in to my garden by building them a natural habitat. In the past I've found pigs manure convenient to transport in the car as it's normally pretty runny and goes in to disused 6L plastic water bottles a treat and hence can be ferried in your family car without it ever smelling like a piggery! The trick is to let it rest in the container for a few weeks before spreading (always ensuring the screw cap is slightly ajar to allow excess gas release (otherwise you'll have a rather nasty organic bomb within a few days, which could explode all over you). The delay allows the anaerobic bugs to enhance the fertilising pigs manure, providing a more rewarding growth experience for the plants.

I need a soil testing kit; where in Phuket can I get one? On the cuttings side, a while ago I managed to buy some powdered hormone rooting compound, but when I went back to the same Phuket shop last week, lo and behold (aye, you've been there too), they didn't stock it any more. So what I need is a Phuket gardening shop that sells stuff like that as well as all the other wee bits and pieces that are handy to have. I find all of the stores here incomplete in their range of specialist products. They'll stock some items to do the business, but not all of them. Sometimes I think I need an fluent English/Thai speaking procurement officer with a first class mind who is aware of every business operation in Phuket! But then my life would be just too easy and I'd get bored and get in to mischief.

On the veggy side I've got a load of European seeds and expect mixed results (they'll probably go straight up fast and then just as fast keel over), so if any of you know of a good local source of cracking seeds that will produce monster tasty carrots, cabbages, potatoes, beetroot and rocket lettuce - let me know. The rocket lettuce grown hydrophodically and sold locally is a pathetic specimen compared with what it could be if it emanated from the best quality plant seed. I'm deeply fond of good quality rocket salad.

Well that's enough for now, and I'll wait and see who in Phuket are kindred spirits. Or if I am alone, and doomed to blunder through my undergrowth each day toiling under the hot sun obsessed with growing the finest quality veggies, but always producing rubbish through my lack of competence as a tropical gardener.

[xen]

As an alternative to powdered hormone powder which also has quite a short shelf life just try honey.

As for the the soil testing kit, I persume you mean a ph testing kit , I would just buy off the internet - maybe buy a testing unit that will give u soil salinity as well if u are by the coast. Prices vary for these but generally the more senitive the machine is the more expensive it will be.

Likewise for the seeds - i am not too sure if Thai Customs would quarintine them tho (i somehow doubt it).

When i move to Thailand i will be bringing a lot of this stuff with me as I also find it hard to get some really basic stuff in Thailand like even decent shovels for planting and chemicals like gypsium .

it is probably available with some much limestone about but nobody seems to know where.

Best of luck with yr garden !

[sportsman69]

Hi,

I live in Phuket, by the sea and have a small garden.........

I want to grow "passion fruit" really good tasty yellow and purple varieties to plant. Has anyone got these locally?

I'm going for bougainvillea "Royal Purple" Who can show me the way to an existing flourishing plant that I can take cuttings off

G'day Goggsie.

Can maybe help out with some of your enquiries. Atm we're picking about 10 kg of fruit both red and yellow a week. The yellow is far more productive but the red is sweeter. Our elevation is about 37 meters, which I think helps the flowers 'set', not sure what results " sea side ", though at Mike's Bikes in Chalong the PEA demanded we cut the vines b/4 they arced out the high voltage tansformer!!! We have seedlings of both available.

Re the bougainvillea if you happen to call by on Sunday the wife will be home and possibly be able to point you in the right direction as well as pass on some valuable self taught local gardening tips and where to get this and that. Click my profile for location and a phone call 081 607 2805 to arrange a time would help.

Cheers 'n' beers.

[goggsie]

Thanks very much for the advice Xen and Sportsman69. I'd almost forgotten I wrote anything and was pleasantly surprised two informative replies were provided. I'll be in touch Sportsman69.

regards

[turnpike]

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

[sid1967]

hi

can i get some gardening advice from you and your wife?

Last year we made passion fruit wine up in chiang mai, would like to grow and drink again

hope to hear from you

Sid

Hi,

I live in Phuket, by the sea and have a small garden.........

I want to grow "passion fruit" really good tasty yellow and purple varieties to plant. Has anyone got these locally?

I'm going for bougainvillea "Royal Purple" Who can show me the way to an existing flourishing plant that I can take cuttings off

G'day Goggsie.

Can maybe help out with some of your enquiries. Atm we're picking about 10 kg of fruit both red and yellow a week. The yellow is far more productive but the red is sweeter. Our elevation is about 37 meters, which I think helps the flowers 'set', not sure what results " sea side ", though at Mike's Bikes in Chalong the PEA demanded we cut the vines b/4 they arced out the high voltage tansformer!!! We have seedlings of both available.

Re the bougainvillea if you happen to call by on Sunday the wife will be home and possibly be able to point you in the right direction as well as pass on some valuable self taught local gardening tips and where to get this and that. Click my profile for location and a phone call 081 607 2805 to arrange a time would help.

Cheers 'n' beers.