Gardening

We have been missing our little garden in England and the allotment too… and we have been missing fresh salads and things like rocket, which is not possible to buy here. You can buy iceberg lettuce and some wilty green leaves, but it isn’t that nice and doesn’t last long. We have also been missing Italian basil (as opposed to Thai basil which is in abundance and is very different in taste), and other herbs.

In Australia we stocked up on seeds, which hopefully have a reasonable chance of doing OK here as the climate is not so very different. When we got back to Yangon we went to a park full of stalls selling many plants and bought a range of pots and plants. The service was very pleasing. We pointed at the pots and plants and then sat down in the shade under an umbrella (in the left of the photo), whilst people scurried around and potted up all the plants. This was convenient as I had been wondering where we were going to find soil. Once all was ready they found a truck to take us home and helped drag the pots into position. It should be noted that we did not buy the tree on the right of the photo. I just liked the idea of having a frangipani tree and so someone went to find me one… but we concluded it was a bit big for the balcony, and seemed to be a little dead looking.

The plants in position

  

Next up was the seeds. We got our friend’s landlord to make us some raised bamboo planters to plant these in. This should mean they get some light, and are easier to weed etc. Our balcony is a strange thing, there is really only a small area wide enough to sit out on, the rest of it is more like a long corridor around the sides of the apartment. By putting the long narrow planters round the edge it has made a useless space a bit more useful… and hopefully things will grow fast in the nice warm weather and then we can start eating. mmmmmm