I’m happy to say that I’m almost complete with my garden but I can’t say that my neighbor feel the same way. They’re an older couple and don’t like to do much to their backyard (you can see their backyard from the second photo below), and I’m afraid that I’ve too much going on back there. I recalled when I was digging my fishpond 2 years ago, they wanted to know what I was doing, I guess she thought I was burying someone back there.
When I first have my trellis up, the wife was sitting at her deck staring at it, I could see the expression on her face, “What the heck is that thing?!” I thought that was funny, but I continued leveling my raised beds as if I didn’t see her. This past Saturday, I borrowed my second sister’s truck to go get some top soil. When we got back, the husband came out to pull weeds, gosh how he loves his grass, but the grass is greener on his side.
When I said almost complete, the planting beds are still empty. Since I live in the foothill, we’re expecting another round of frost coming our way, so it should be nice and warm by next weekend. My original plan calls for a swing, but since my GI Joe sister gave me a bench, I thought that I could use that instead, but I didn’t communicate well with my dad. He went out and bought some wood to make the legs, by then I was almost maxed out on my budget, I only have enough to buy a small tiller. It was a hard choice to make, as you can see that I bought the swing instead, and all I can say is that it was a backbreaking work to get this done. This is the before picture.
The bench is next to the fishpond, it’s actually nice to have a place to sit and watch the fish.
Below is a persimmon tree that I purchased from my local temple last year during Lao New Year. Purchase is not the correct term to be used with Buddhist temples because Buddhist Temples are not allowed to sell, but we can offer in monetary term such as donation, and Lao people called it Busa. So I Busa the tree from the temple.
Most of the plants and pots I didn’t have to buy, I got them from my sisters. This one my younger sister calls it Bat Face, but it doesn’t look like Bat Face to me, I need to find out the name, it has a nice fragrant, a perennial, and also drought tolerant.
Nye Noona 
wow. your garden and ponds are very pretty. I think I posted my pond and garden before. My fiance wants to add gold fish, but I declined since I’m afraid stray cats will eat them. (there are plenty of strays around here!)
lady0fdarkness, thanks. It’s a lot of work but well worth it. If you want, you can buy comets, they’re about $0.26 and not too expensive. My sister also has problem with stray cats and dogs, but her fish seem to be okay. It’s good exercise to work out in the garden, I enjoy sitting back there.
Very addictive indeed, it’s ‘green drug.’. I’ve been called to come in several times because I spend too much time out there. Maybe I just need to come inside and sit around and watch TV or something, then it will be “go find something to do would you.” It’s a no win situation at times, but I know what I’m doing out there is better then doing nothing at all.
I don’t have that much nosey neighbors; they do at times want to come and look and I let them. The only nosey one was the old lady behind us, but since I explained to her what I was doing, and she visited a few times(to give her seal of approval), she had not been watching as much. As for your nosey neighbors, maybe when you get some cucumbers and give some to them, they’ll break a smile or two.
It’s really looking good out there Nye. I’m sure you’re itching to plant something soon. My mom brought in some cilantro that she had put down seeds over the winter, huge!!! She sent some home to my mother-in-law yesterday and I’m sure she’ll be very happy to receive them. My mom let the cilantro get pretty big so she can save the roots and the thick stem, good for boiling chicken and other soup. Most of our garden are still cover with them…this can be the winter plant for some part of the garden since they do well in cold weather…will keep the garden green in the fall. Take care and enjoy:-)
PaNoy, I rather not give anything to them, if they get sick they might sue me. I can’t imagine their reaction when they see my string beans, might freak them out. My neighbor on the other side are real nice, also older couple but the husband smokes like a freight train and that’s why I moved my garden away from him.
The weather has been a bit crazy lately, like it’s real cold tonight, and I expect it to be the next couple of nights or so. They say that it’s best to plant after the income tax due date, which is April 15th, that’s what a lot of farmers in this area go by, so it’s easy to remember.
Hello…I’ve been following your blog for a long time now but have never commented…maybe only once or twice. But I just wanted to say that your blog is very interesting and engaging. What I like most about your blog is that you blog about the Southeast Asian cultures, especially the Lao cultures. I’m Laotian too, and part Chinese. Love what you are doing to your garden. My mom loves to garden too, but since we fumigated our house and the surrounding properties to our house with Termite poison we can’t plant anything, especially herbs and vegetables for the summer, which really bummed my whole family out. I really like the little red bridge over the fish pond…it is cute!
Hi Toon, thanks for commenting, it’s nice to hear from you, I’m also part Chinese, Lao and Thai. My dad built the bridge, I think he did a good job, he is very handy and likes to do things like this, but I came up with the design, I like something simple and clean line. It’s too bad that your family can’t plant a garden this year, but have they thought about doing Suspended Gardening, it’s very much like the raised bed that I have here, but raised it completely off the ground (picture here), something slightly different and might be fun to do. I’ve seen people planted their vegetables upside down in buckets suspended in mid air before, this is something that I’ve not tried, but seem interesting if space is the issue. Potted Garden is also interesting, as you can see that I’ve incorporated many pots in my garden as well, it’s very popular in Laos.
And congrats on passing your state board. 🙂
Hey thanks Ginger, I am glad I passed too. The suspended garden idea is something I have not heard of before…I’ll be looking into it since we like to eat our vegetables from our very own garden instead of spending a gazillion dollars at the store in the summer. If you don’t mind me asking where do you live? Because your place looks so nice.
Toon, RN is an ideal job right now, sort of recession proof also, great field to be in and not many Lao people are in it, but I know one here that is a Lao male RN, he absolutely loves his job, there’s also room for growth if you decided to go back to school.
I think suspended garden would be a fun project to look into. I live in North Carolina, moved here from NYC with my parents, sort of moving away from the cold weather, it’s kind of nice here, and my dad loves it here.
You have made a realy nice garden, I would like to copy it! 🙂
What is the historical background for the bridge? It looks so nice. The trellis is also a great idea.
Hi giiid, you’re welcome to copy, lots of places to sit and relax, I think I could live out there. 🙂
There is no history behind this bridge, I couldn’t find one in the store that I like so my dad helped me build one, he is very handy, this garden wouldn’t come together like this if it wasn’t because of him. The trellis is great for small space, planting starts next week. 🙂
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Wow, it’s all coming together really nicely. And it’s not even summer yet! I think your summer will be especially nice this year.
As much as I hate the California summer heat, I do enjoy all the fresh summer fruits and veggies. They taste better when they are in season and fresh off the vine! 🙂
Salat, I’m very happy of the outcome, it’s a lot of work but well worth it. I don’t mind the summer heat, I kind of like the hot weather.
My dad often buys vegetable for me at the flea market, we wouldn’t have to buy any during the summer time, looking forward to that. 🙂
Very nice garden. You work too much.
Ainoo, thanks. I don’t think there is such thing as work too much, but I do wish that I have more space, I could do wonders.