Thanks for all the responses to mine previous submission. I will send some pictures of the progress.
@Jan.S
I think you are still young, vital and a perfectionist.
Well, I'm only 73, certainly vital and the rest always applies to me: If you do something, do it right the first time.
Half work always breaks you up later and in that respect I do sometimes have trouble with the Thai mentality: if it is crooked it is almost straight, right?
@Roel
Will also explain to you why you should do it this way if you don't want to drown in prolonged rainfall. The soil has or creates capillaries, the blood vessels of the soil. The capillaries continue up to the groundwater level.
Thanks for the advice. I wonder if your knowledge of landscaping is based on experience in the Netherlands or the Thai circumstances?
I myself have quite a lot of experience in the construction of gardens in the Netherlands, but here in Thailand the cards are completely different in that respect and the Dutch experience is of no use to you. The soil and weather conditions are completely different in the Isaan (3 to 4 meters heavy clay) and there is no question of capillary action in the concrete hard clay. Once the clay has dried out, no more water will pass through and the water will remain standing. (Even after heavy rain in the rainy season) Drilling holes by hand with a ground drill is out of the question.
For this you have to use a motor-driven auger that usually does not go deeper than 1 meter. And then you are still three meters from the underlying sand layer, so I don't see that as a possibility.
The environment here is of course not representative of the whole of Thailand and the availability of materials also differs greatly from what is possible in Bangkok, for example.
For example, I have been wondering for years why a small contractor does not have a small concrete mixer, such a thing can be bought here for 15000 baht at a hardware store. No, people prefer to prepare and mix the concrete by hand in a mortar tub, no matter how hot and how heavy the work is and…how slow it goes.
For example, coconut fiber, which you can buy on every corner of the street in the Netherlands, is completely unknown here and people look at you incredulously when you say that it is meant to be put in the ground for better water management.
Fertilizer is available everywhere here. Nearby is a trader who sells 40 or 50 different brands and compositions. But if you ask which composition is most suitable for you, he shrugs his shoulders and says: it's all fertilizer, sir, all good, choose yourself. And that brings you to the heart of the problem here, expertise in any area is completely missing here. You have to figure it all out yourself and that works well on the internet, but I don't speak or read Thai so….
I have now purchased a cultivator, first wet the old lawn, mill over it, remove the grass and weeds as much as possible and then apply sand to the desired height. Then I mill through the sand and rake it smooth. Now I leave it for a few weeks and spray the emerging weeds to death. Only when I am sure that there are no germinating weeds and grasses will I lay new grass.
@PEER
We live just on the Nrd side of Ubon in Kham Yai and would love to come and admire your garden.
Well, there's not much to admire right now. The garden now looks more like a construction site. We are currently milling part by part, removing grass and raising it. Of course I can't do that alone and I have help from 2 strong guys from the neighborhood who come when they have time. And they don't say it, but they do think it:….that Farang….he is crazy….
I will keep you informed,
Submitted by Pim
Just a small addition.
At the company where we bought that milling machine, they also sell those chipping machines, those chopping devices.
Because it is becoming increasingly difficult here to burn all the prunings, which is sometimes quite a bit, because of the smoke development, we immediately bought such a machine for the somewhat thinner branches and coconut palm branches and leaves.
And.. we are now milling it underground.
No coconut fibres... just shredded prunings...
Indeed, half work breaks you up. We wanted a new lawn on the old grass. In the village no problem, experts sat, price low! Mowed the old grass and put sod on it. Done quickly, evening buffalo. After 4 months, the old coarse grass grew through our new sod. Did they find no problem here, green right? And those beautiful blue flowers, cute! I didn't want that, but I also didn't want to spray with chemicals. So covered the lawn with black plastic and waited 5 months. Now everything is really finished and the new lawn can come.
I would check if after the black plastic is off there are not all kinds of green plants coming up.
On the surface everything may be gone, but all kinds of weeds may still germinate in the subsoil.
I would wait a few weeks and spray.
Otherwise, everything will come through your new lawn and you will be back to square one….
Dear Jan,
All types of soil, no matter how solid, have capillary vessels, wouldn't that be the case that no rainwater flows at all into the subsoil for drainage and if that hadn't happened for centuries, we wouldn't even have existed, everything would have been 1 big sea.
Coconut fiber is even better for sale here in Thailand than in the Netherlands, you can get trucks full of it. are special companies that entertain the shells of coconut. Obviously I don't know your area, but I've been to many places in Thailand and everywhere I've been they had it.
Soil can be hard due to drying out and therefore difficult to work with an earth auger. But nothing is too difficult and making a borehole of 4 meters is a piece of cake. Water wells are also drilled, simply done with a round widea head with saw teeth on a pipe and a water hose is connected to the pipe and a borehole is made based on water pressure. I had a factory in Turkey, let my own water source pass through a layer of about 140 meters of granite. e have been drilling for 1 month and 24 hours a day, but plenty of water afterwards.
Well done with milling, but you didn't have to remove old grass and weeds, is or will be organic material and thus increasing bacterial life. You wanted to raise about 20 cm, suffocate grass and monocotyledonous weeds under its layer of sand, but give humus when it is digested.
A tip to get the ground nice and flat later. If you have a ladder, or buy a bamboo ladder, cheap too. You have a milling machine, take off milling and use the motor with the wheels.
But at each end of bamboo ladder a sturdy rope to the milling cutter (milling machine as a draft horse) then put a light concrete band or concrete carrier on the bamboo ladder. not too heavy. When everything is attached you should pull the ground smooth and ready for the sod. If the soil is too loose, wait and water or lower it with a heavy roller.
Good luck with hard work,
Roel
Dear All,
I thought that staying in Thailand should mainly involve relaxing.
And what do I see? Countless people with patches of land ie lawns that all need regular maintenance. Then they ride a mini John Deer through the sweltering heat and pretend it's fun.
Then you live in Thailand and what do you do? Mowing.
Dirk
Oh yes, good sir Dirk,
What shall I say to this.
I didn't have to make much effort to find a place in Thailand, but it could just as well be another warm country, where you can live quietly without people around you telling you what you can and cannot do, how you you have to organize your life and without having to answer for another new car or mower (was that necessary, that thing you had was good too, wasn't it?).
In short, I have my hobbies and I really enjoy the freedom I have here and where I can do what I want on 3 rai without bothering others.
And just as you are surprised about people who work up a sweat on their piece of land, I am surprised about people who "have a pleasant rest" in Thailand by sitting alone at a table on a terrace day in and day out and with a withered glass of beer staring blankly ahead.
I was last in Pattaya for a few days in January 2020, I like to go to the beach for a few days from time to time and look up the bustle for a while, but not longer than 3 or 4 days and then soon back home where there are no tourists.
I like it for a while but after a few days I really can't handle all those bare oiled bodies anymore.
Take a nice walk on the boulevard, which was in a bit of a mess at the time due to renovation, and watch those men who look at the passers-by with desolate and bored faces in those hunkerbunkers.
Waiting for “friends” to gossip again about Rutte's politics, the wrong decision of the referee or the idiotic new measure of the “immigration”?
Could those people have rented or bought a condo where you can either sit inside or go out onto the street?
And that you are now completely bored with the environment there and that you are now completely bored because you have nothing to do at all?
Maybe look on your balcony at the blank wall of the next condo building that blocks your view?
Sometimes I think I'm going to Pattaya on purpose to see those sad hunkerbunkers now and then so that I can realize even better how much I can enjoy the peace and space that I have in and around our house.
And can enjoy nature and making a garden the way I like it.
And want to put in the effort and work up a sweat for it.
Enjoy driving through the garden with that heat on my riding mower and after work done see with satisfaction how the garden is looking good again.
I live in the Isaan, not a jerk to experience, not a tourist to be seen and what do I do?
Lawn mowing, delicious…
I can only agree with that.
And nothing is as pleasant as relaxing afterwards and enjoying your own garden.
Maybe Dirk should give it a try too
I understand you completely and I hope that you can do this for a long time and that you are well. Reading your story made me think back to my childhood.
I used to work in paving, especially paving in gardens with a gardener, etc. Great work to do, but hard and it gave me and those for whom we did this a lot of satisfaction.
Dear Jan,
Inquire if you can buy Terracottum here. Now you are working on it, here are the benefits, we used a similar product before. Absorbs about 100 times its own volume in water.
What does Terracotta do?
incorporated in sand or substrate, it increases the water storage capacity and the ventilation.
it thus protects the plants against water stress and promotes the formation of roots by making the soil more airy.
it improves the soil quality and requires less frequent watering.
ensures a balanced plant nutrition due to the large availability of water and fertilizers in various forms.
Very good milling in different directions is necessary.
Applications of water crystals:
Planting of trees & shrubs
Reforestation and land reclamation
Flower beds, plant borders, roof gardens, lawns, etc.
Flower boxes, window boxes and containers
Horticulture
Agriculture
When to administer:
At planting or just before sowing
Frequency of administration:
Only once
Hello Roel,
I've been looking at that terracotta.
It is a brand name for many different soil improvement products.
But very expensive, especially when you consider that I need stuff for roughly 1300 square meters.
I am in contact with a grass farm and they also have something similar.
I'll wait for their offer.
Thanks for your advice, to be continued.
Greet,
Pim