Privacy Fence

If you want to read of how I journeyed through with my garden, I have posted it in my other blog, Journey of My Life.  Read it here.

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A privacy fence was one of the idea. The reason is to block and separate the back portion of the house from the front.


The Resak Wood was purchased from the local hardware store. The sizes of wood was 2 x 4", 4 x 4" and 1 x 4"

4 x 4" pillars as foundation

4 holes of about 1 feet wide and 1.5 inch deep was dugged. Instead of digging up the hole in a day, bit by bit was dug up over a period of few days. Just as I was ready to mix the cement to put the foundational pillars, the Indonesian worker was available to assist for the next few days. Hooray! So, he helped to fix the foundational pillars.

2 x 4" was fixed on by The Teenage Son and I, when he was off from
school during the recent Public Holiday

The foundation was allowed to dry for about 2-3 days. Then, I solicited  The Teenage Son's help. Both of us took the late morning and most of the afternoon to cut the 1 x 4" plants to exactly 5 feet length with the circular saw. Then we measured and cut to appropriate lengths, the 2 x 4". That was hard work. Galvanized bolt of 3" was used to fasten the 2 x 4 " to the 4 x 4". We used the drill to make the holes.


Apparently (after everything was done), according to Hubby (who is the actual Engineer and Expert), we used the wrong drill bit size. It should have been smaller hole. Never mind, a learning process. That day, I used the drill for the 1st time in my life. Not bad.

The privacy fence and there is a plan to make a Pergola
using the same pillars

The next day, The Teenage Son had to go to school. So, I was left alone to do up the fence. All geared up and gung-ho, I proceeded to fix the fence. How hard can it be? After all, I have researched in youtube and internet.


After taking 1 hour to fix 2 planks and realised that the bolts were not aligned and the drill holes were too big... As a result, the bolts was not strong and the plank begins to fall when knocked. The Engineer and Expert stumbled upon me, the Gung-Ho-youtube-educated-Fence-Installer.


A quick lesson ensued.


Oh.. I see. That's how its done.


Eventually when The Teenage Son came back from school, all of us fixed the fence together and I must say, it turned out beautifully!


It was great fun for me... I am a Handy-Woman... by accident.

My Masterpiece

There is a small rectangle piece of land in the porch.   For months, it has been redundant and I took a looooong time, trying to figure the best way to have a simple, no maintenance and a joy to the eyes.


Cement it?


Noooooooooooooooooooo!


That is probably the last thing I want to do... but... The downside...I don't like weeding and cutting.


I also hate the 'jungle' concept.  Whereby all the plants grow well, together with weeds.



So, I took the time to think and design something which is uniquely me.  No!  The concept is not called Weird.   Its  Simple and Nice - with a touch of 'little to no maintenance' as inspiration.


The Frangipani plant was the first to go into The Masterpiece whilst I continued to think further....

Frangipani and sand

Then, I visited Sg. Buloh and they have everything you need to fit into a garden.  I bought plants, plants and more plant.   And even more plants.  Obsession??  I don't know what you are talking about.


I visited nursery after nursery for days.  I bought Philippine grass, bamboos, stones, plants, pots.... Well, somebody's gotta to help these people... Do you know how many of them are there??!!!    How do they keep up the business?  Probably with people like me who 'kills' cactus.


Obsession???  I still don't know what you are talking about.


Anyways.


I bought stones.  Many different types.

Small purple stones from Philippines

Aquarium purple stones

Orange colored stones from Thailand, I think

Shells collected from a beach in Thailand

The sandy ground was laid with black plastics which was recycled after I laid the Philippine Grass.  Its to stop the weeds from growing under the stones.  

After planting more plants and laying the stones. And now it looks like this 

Upon completion

Why are you looking so sad today?

Mama tortoise

Tortoise can be opened up and candles put inside

Baby tortoise

Little dino

There is very little I need to do for The Masterpiece other than daily watering.  Little weeding now and then but other than that, its pretty easy.  I am glad I went with stones.   But unfortunately not all stones are good to have.  I have seen the white ones and they eventually have lots of green algae growing on it.  

 

BEFORE

AFTER

Landscape on the Outside

I was planting the Philippine Grass almost to completion and realised that it was not enough for the outside.  Great job on planning *pat myself on the back*  and then *roll eyes*.


Rather than getting the Indonesian worker to come back again, I decided that the remaining pieces gets split up.

Initial look similar to patchwork

AFTER 2 months

BEFORE View from another angle

AFTER 2 months

A hilly landscape was done due to convenience.  I had extra soil dug up from inside the house compound and didn't want to get another truck to clear it.  It turned out perfect.  Giving the plain looking landscape a difference.

BEFORE

AFTER

Plants put randomly and then black plastics were laid at the bottom and then covered with dried leaves. Its just to stop weeds from growing.  I saved the black plastics from the Philippine Grass and recycled them.  Very useful indeed.

I didn't have the time to do more landscape for the plants near the coconut tree, yet.  I really abhor the ugly looking bricks.  But that was the best I could do to make it look neat enough, for the moment.  I am in the midst of making cute little wooden fence.  I will get on it once I get my butt out of this chair infront of the computer!

When will I get to taste you, my little delicious Nam Dok Mai manggo?   No, don't be pressured, take your time to grow and fruit... Right about next week will do fine...  *pat pat rub rub*

Portulaca Grandiflora, (Moss-rose Purslane or Moss-rose)  in the middle of the 'hill'.  I used to call it Japanese Rose but I discovered its scientific name from one of the blog I visited.  Its amazing how ignorant I am with names of plants *sheepish*.  Infact, I don't know most of the names of my plants. But. I do know the names of my sons.

Planting Philippine Grass

When the renovation was completed, The Garden was a load of mess... Stones, wood, steel and just loads of renovation rubbish of miscellaneous stuffs.


A total of 6-7 trucks were needed to clear it.  Indonesians were employed to clear the rubbish.


The plan was to plant some grass.


So, I went to Sg. Buloh to shop around for grass and Philippine Grass was an obvious choice due to its hardiness, ample supply and beauty.  Japanese Grass could have been a choice except that it would cost 3 times more.  Cow Grass was cheaper but not as nice as Philippline Grass. 


A truckload of 10 tan fine sand was purchased from the local hardware store and it was laid on The Garden.   It took a Bangladeshi, an Indonesian and myself to get the job done - 1.5 days.  Not bad.  Hard work, though.

The "Empty Canvass" after cleared of rubbish and weeds

Philippine Grass laid out 1 x 2 sq ft - Price range from 

RM1.30 to RM2.50 per pc, depending on where you purchase

Grass is best when it has roots coming out but its rare.  They usually sells them

off early

 Grass nicely laid.. In total about  700 pcs of 1 x 2 sq ft was planted.

If you would like to plant your own grass rather than getting the landscapers, this are just a few tips from my own experience...

1. Clear your land of grass. A few ways to get rid of them.  (a) Overturn the ground  (b) weedkiller  (c) lay plastics/newspapers/cardboard boxes on the grass till it dies.  Could be weeks.  So plan ahead.
2. When ready, purchase fine sand from the local hardware shop.  A 10 tan truckload cost between RM420 to RM500.  Preferably buy a little at a time.  Especially if you have a small garden.  They also sell by, "per scoop".  That sounds deceiving but its quite a large amount.  Get the advice of your local hardware store, maybe they can help on the amount.
3. Lay the sand and let it stand for a few days.  If not, you gotta manually press it down  (like me.)  Landscapers has the equipments to do that.  I had to roll my empty gas tank and occasionally jump on a large piece of 16 x 16cm tile. Watering it also helps the sand to 'go down'. Some creativity using unconventional ways were required.  That job was largely mine, while the Bangladeshi and Indonesian laid the grass.
4. Peel the grass from the plastic, lay it and knock it down with something... like a piece of wood or something flat.
5. After laying it, make sure you water it sufficiently - almost like flooding it.  Reason being that it still has no roots, so, watering 3 times a day is necessary for the 1st few weeks and preferably a month.
6. Before laying the grass, put some fertilizer on  top of the sand.  Fertilize the grass every 3 days to 1 week with Urea (white color).  This will keep the grass vibrant green rather than yellowish green.
7. Lastly but not least, pull the weeds.

One of the disadvantage of having lawn rather than tiles is clearing weeds.  It takes loads of hardwork.  Every other day, I squad down and pull weeds.  Its exercise but then again... I do have better things to do.


But.


I have a brilliant plan.  From now onwards, if  The Boy and The Teenage Son misbehaves, their punishment would not be, "Go to your room", but instead, its gonna be, "Go and pull weeds for 30 mins / 2 hours!"


Am I clever or am I clever?

My New Hobby.... Gardening.

Beautiful red Frangipani growing beautifully in My Garden

I grew up in a place full of trees and I  climbed  it,  picking rambutans and mangosteins. Both are very popular fruits.

When I stayed in Bangkok for 3 years, I never tasted fruits this juicy, sweet and fresh. Oh, not to forget, cheap too.

Anyways.

That was how the love of trees and plants developed.  And I guess it's a natural instinct for all to love them.  What is there not to love?

Unfortunately, there is something I need to confess.... I have no track record of having 'green thumb'.

I have killed cactus.

*screams at background*

But, please, don't let that create bias-ness against me. I shall redeem myself, I think.

Anyways.

The opportunity to venture into this new Gardening hobby emerged when we purchased a house with some land.

So the journey begins.

Thank you for coming by, hope you will continue to do so.