How Does Your Garden Grow?

Ever since moving into our own home we have been itching to get our hands dirty, dig in some soil and get fresh produce from our land. Well we are pleased to announce that this time has come! We started our garden a little more than a month ago and now have some produce to show for it!

With the help of our landlord (Khamsay), his brother and the occasional helping neighbor, we began garden construction. We say construction because the first thing you must do here in Thathom is to build a good solid fence…otherwise when you plant your crops the only thing you will be feeding is the neighbor’s free range chickens and turkeys! For the fence locals will usually use bamboo which they weave into a mesh. Our landlord suggested buying commercially made netting which allows light to pass through it better and will not rot over the years. Our plot of land is roughly 20ft by 20ft which provides us with room to grow things intensively on 3 beds. The land was blessed by having a cow/buffalo shelter occupy the area during the years prior. This has yielded a several inch layer of old manure which we are slowly working into the soil.

Garden Construction (Note our neighbor helping in his silk shirt, on his way to a wedding!)

As we are coming into the hot season locals are beginning to phase out their gardens. The rainy season (June-August) also limits growth due to daily rainstorms that pound the earth. We are going to try and keep things watered during the hot season and attempt to keep things growing as long as we can into the rainy season. Many of the local villagers will extend the garden season by planting in high raised beds (literally ‘raised’ because they are stilted, four or five feet off the ground). Some also will shelter part of their garden from the pounding rain. We haven’t decided how we’ll get things to grow during the rainy season, but it will probably be a combination of what we see and of course some experimenting as well!

After Planting

So what kind of things can you grow in Laos, where the season theoretically is year round? Currently, we are harvesting cilantro, lettuce and a variety of mustard greens. We have planted papaya around the perimeter of the plot as well as three stocks of sugar cane which are taking off! Other plants include: eggplant, volunteer tomatoes, roselle, lemon grass, lemon basil, mint, dill, spring onion, and ginger and a variety of flowers.

Villagers are constantly coming by to look at the ‘falang’ (foreigner’s) garden, make suggestions, ask what we are planting and frequently make the comment, “Ngam, ngam.” (Beautiful, beautiful). We aren’t yet sure if they mean it because we do still have lots of bare earth and are using mulch to cover the paths and beds. Mulch is a foreign concept so we are thinking that our garden must look pretty unkempt in the villager’s eyes (whose gardens are utterly devoid of unnecessary leaves and wood shavings).

Kaarina Working (And Smiling)

A Current View of our Garden

On one occasion when we were first digging the garden beds a neighbor stopped by to see what was happening next door. To strike up a conversation Jeffrey asked him if his family had a garden. (The word for garden is ‘swan,’ said by inflecting the tone upwards). He said yes and his daughter, who was with him, ran back to their home to get something. She returned holding a shovel, which he gave to Jeffrey. That is when it hit us that Jeffrey must not have made his question clear. (The word for shovel and garden are virtually identical. ‘Swan,’ for shovel is said in a high falling tone). Needless to say we now specify ‘vegetable’ garden whenever we use the word ‘swan,’ just to make sure we don’t end up asking for a shovel.

…chickens are next on the list!