our garden in Chiangmai, Northern Thailand
this webpage lives at
http://www.thailand4life.net/smithgarden
Chris and Nong Smith
Chiangmai
THAILAND
email: csmith@csmith.info
.. and what is my day job?
(often nights as well)
it is supporting International Schools
across S.E.Asia.
Click on the SHAMBLES or TEPA
logos for more info ..
if you are in education
teacher, student, parent
then you'll find something useful
.. guaranteed
I used to also be into Photography,
teaching it and commercially
.. but not so much recently
CLICK LOGO to see pics
Links to other websites:
| Tourist Association of Thailand |
|
Thai Ministry of Commerce |
| Chiangmai Mall |
| Thailand Newspapers and media |
| General Thai Information Websites |
site designed and built by
Chris Smith
After working in Hong Kong for 24 years (1978-2002) moved back to Nong's home town in North Thailand ... I set up my own independent consultancy in order to be able to make a living ... but one of our projects involved our garden. (OK .. mainly Nong's project)
Not many people in Hong Kong have gardens so it has been a wonderful experience building ours in Thailand ... even the mistakes (which there have been lots of) ... below you will find a record of how it went (is still going) ... click on the small pictures to see larger ones ... from Nov 2003 to April 2004
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It all started when we moved into our house in December 2002 |
This corner would eventually have a patio door and decking with the filtration underneath |
Sideview of the house |
Unusual rubbish bins at the front of each house ... made out of recycled tyres |
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The first thing to do is get the monks in and get the house blessed |
9 Buddhist monks .. lucky number apparently |
They showed great interest in our first fish tank |
.. and after the monks left we had a party |
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Nong and the designer"Bowl' decide where to start digging |
let the digging begin |
mechanical digging finished .. now bring on the strong guys |
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reinforcement and pipes in place .. now where is that load of concrete? |
The concrete for the floor of the pond being laid |
More concrete under the watchful eye of the foreman's son |
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more concrete |
more concrete |
more concrete .. looking for the flip-flops that one of the workers lost while wading in concrete |
concrete has set ... time to plan out the walls of the pond |
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wall bricks laid ... the square tank is the filter .. as big as the pond itself |
another layer of bricks going into the walls ... plus some plastic |
the filter can be seen easily here ... but has yet to have the individual sections built in |
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the waterfall wall will be on the right |
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time to knock two walls down and put in new patio doors |
high tech equipment .. in bare feet |
and now the second wall goes .. it's too late to ask if a 'supporting wall' |
both missing walls can be seen (where are the cats?) |
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.. can anyone else hear 'meowing' under this pile of rubbish? |
starting to put the covering over the pod walls .. guy is in the filter |
hole for patio doors + plus hole for the filtration system for the fish pool |
thank goodness the patio doors have gone in |
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the posts go up to support the water fall wall .. looking from behind |
decking is going in |
decking over the filters .. there are 6 sections to the filters |
decking and drying walls |
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can just see the sections in the filter .. and the waterfall wall starting to rise |
the back of the waterfall wall ... actually the front of the house so can be seen from the road |
the waterfall wall rising .. plus partial view of empty filter sections |
Meanwhile over the wall at the back of the house the guys are bringing in the latest rice crop |
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the master builder .. and he really did know his trade ! .. lot os respect for this guy |
waterfall wall almost complete ... providing privacy from the road |
the first load of water to soak the walls ... notice the floating banana stems .. which apparently soak up dissolved concrete |
The pergola well under way |
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during the first month we had to keep the sun off in order to give the filter an opportunity to settle down |
in fact we had some difficulties with green 'stuff' growing in the water and have had to cover it up several times |
after a couple of weeks the filters seem to take control again |
bit of a hassle really ... a nice facility but covered in plastic .. DRAT this algae |
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The Finished work ... in fact it will probably never be finished ... a lifetime commitment .. but fun (we hope) |
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anyone for chess? |
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view down from the balcony |
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front of the house .. back of the waterfall wall |
back of the waterfall wall |
view from the balcony ... the waterfall wall on the left |
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the pergola |
fish .. but wouldn't keep still for the photo .. DRAT |
inside the pergola ... furniture is made from old wooden (Thai) farm equipment |
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water round one side of the pergola |
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this garden furniture is great ... made by prisoners in a Thai jail |
a slightly Bali look . but made from sandstone in local small business (Thai) |
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one of the first visitors to the garden |
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front of the house |
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| DRAT ... couldn't resist putting a thatch over the Pergola .. 17 April 2004 | |||
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this is where it all starts .. deciding how to keep the sun and rain off the pergola |
the Bamboo has been cut and the grass (thatch) dried .. now how is it fitted on? |
cutting holes in the bamboo for the main supports |
no nails needed for this join |
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view from across the road ... |
the next supports go in .. nails used in this bit |
time to start laying the thatch .. fancy name for some dried grass |
these are what the strips of thatch look like |
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almost finished |
last few bits ... notice the safety equipment |
a view of the finished shelter over the pergola .. it might take a while to get used to it |
and as we had some bamboo left over .. thought I'd ask one of the guys to make some fancy candle holders |
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The Family
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Nong |
Chris |
'BIG KAT' .. bought all the way from Hong Kong ... very relaxed |
.. or new local Thai 'Little Kat' even more relaxed |
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| 'Albert' .. unfortunately we had to leave him in Hong Kong .. as the customs officers would not allow him into Thailand .. very sad .. a good friend for 23 years | |||
| ... some of the facilites on our Mooban (Village) includes | |||
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keep fit area with our house in the background |
clubhouse pool restaurant |
pool again .. small pile of condos in the backgroup |
clubhouse .. restaurant on the top floor |
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SPA |
now have to try to earn some money to try and pay for all of this |
entrance to the village |
tennis courts |
Spa |
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| email me csmith@csmith.info if you would like a copy of a Word file with our address in Thai and English and directions | Click the image to get a larger version ... map/roads to our village/estate | ||