Creating tropical gardens in Thailand

Posted by Arda on April 29th, 2007 filed in Leisure, Activities, Thailand travel

By Andrew Bond

Ah gardens! They can turn an ugly mass of cement and brick into a lovely tropical home or villa. Picture a tumbled mass of pink, red and white Bouganvilla besides your entrance or gorgeous frangipangis splashing white and yellow pastels across your patio. Throw in a soothing water feature with a few spears of decorative bamboo, some lush ferns and a cluster of heliconia dripping in red tendrons, and you have yourself a luxurious outdoor living space that reminds you just why you’ve come to live in Thailand.

Gardens are a popular appendage to villas and houses in Thailand, they’re cheap to develop and the region is spoilt with an abundance of exotic tropical species and plenty of sunshine and water. But finding your green fingers isn’t quite that easy, and it takes plenty of planning, creativity and work to end up with a spa-like green space. Fortunately there are plenty of landscaping and garden services in Thailand’s main centres, with a generous supply of plants, materials and ornaments from the various markets in Bangkok, Chiang Mai and Phuket among others. These services can get their hands dirty for you and usually arrange for top-soil, humus and even acquire all the plants. But if you truly hope to end up with a boutique garden worthy of a House and Home Magazine feature, you will need to do your homework and discover which species grow best where. In this article we chart a beginners guide to creating a garden, with some practical solutions for creating privacy, using limited space, turbo charging the growth of shady areas and designing water features. Guide to Thailand

Planning
Planning is essential to achieve a satisfying end result. Creative use of space and materials can optimise your outdoor living area and mean the difference between a mess or a masterpiece. Although you might employ a good landscaping service it is ultimately up to you which ‘look and feel’ you prefer. It’s important to stick with a distinct theme, or allocate different themes to various parts of your garden, reserving the areas adjacent to the patios and house for special attention and using the larger areas for experimenting or being more capricious. Landscapers can offer all sorts of ideas, storyboards and portfolio photos but you can have fun yourself by keeping an eye open as you drive around neighbourhoods, visit spas and hotels or gather ideas from municipal gardens. It’s often fun and cheaper doing it yourself with a little input from the experts.

The first considerations are probably the amount of space you have, the topography of the plot and its position relative to neighbours and compass points. Since plants have their preferences too, your entire layout will certainly be dictated by the movement of the sun throughout the day and seasons. Take the time to make observations of this and estimate the degree of movement between each solstice, particular up North where it is more pronounced. It could mean the difference of a few extra hours of sun a day on your planned Bali garden, ruining the prospects for more lush shade-loving species.

Then there is the view, particularly for hillside and seafont positions, as these would have featured strongly in the design and positioning of the house. In fact a truly professional job will have taken these into consideration long before the architects go to work. If you are likely to transplant mature trees, you’ll need to sort these out first, allowing accesss for a 10 ton truck, before getting carried away with grass and plants. Neighbours or future neighbours is another important threat, particularly in Thailand where building regulations favour dense development. Plants, shrubs and trees can act as good screens to eliminate unsightly buildings and this all helps to create a private illusion, even as an afterthought.

Another important consideration in Thailand is the prevailing wind and if your property enjoys the benefit of a breeze you’ll want to plan the garden to maximize this  towards the living areas of the house. Luckily, planning the garden is less rigid than the construction and can be modified as you progress.

Trees
One of the great benefits of developing a garden in Thailand is the affordability and availability of mature trees, transplanting them and saving yourself a 15 year wait for a nice shady spread. This is a huge advantage to developers looking to resell and can greatly add to the value of the property. Tree markets are commonly found in the major centres, and some are exceptionally good value, especially in Chiang Mai where villagers make a living removing trees from public forests and setting up shop on roadsides.

The further out you go the cheaper they get. Usually prices include delivery and some sort of guarantee. But it’s not as simple as that. Transplanting a tree means placing it in an entirely new environment which might be a couple of degrees warmer or less breezy than before, stunting its further development. Others take several years to put out a new root system and really begin filling out (most will have been severely pruned and trimmed for transportation). Until this happens they run the risk of being blown over in heavy storms (as this author experienced!), so be sure to plant them deeply.

The other important caution is the placement near perimeter walls or buildings, as trees with broad canopies usually have an equally broad root system that can play havoc with paved driveways, and structures that have no foundations. It pays to do you homework on the species. How quickly they fill out or grow is the other important factor, as not all trees transplant well and some will need to be grown from saplings. Devil trees (Thai: Phayaa Sattaban), for example, are a favourite because they grow tall very quickly, while an avocado tree takes forever. Correct and often ruthless pruning will encourage them to spread nicely.

Although many trees flower beautifully, such as the ubiquitous flambouyant (Thai: Hang nok yuung farang), the principle use of trees is to provide shade, protection and a green foliage. Trees are likely to be one of the more expensive parts of your garden, and a lovely large ficus standing 15 meters tall will cost in excess of 30,000 baht. However, some solid tree cover is necessary to provide the shade needed for the more delicate species that come with a boutique garden. You may even need to be patient and wait a season for the canopy to fill out before planting anything that doesn’t like direct sunlight.

Palms are particularly popular and ‘tropical’, and can be transplanted with ease. There are more than a dozen species or varieties, but one of the most useful is the multi-trunk Madagasgar Palm (Thai: Mak Lueng); abundant, bushy and cheap, they are easily transplanted even at 10m tall. Smaller versions are also great for potting and adding foliage to a patio or balcony. Coconut palms on the other hand aren’t easy to transplant after three years old but are wonderful props when fully mature.

Another classic cosmetic addition to a tropical garden is the fan-shaped Traveller’s Palm (Thai: Kluay Phat), although their leaves should be shaded from excessive wind to prevent shredding. The good old frangipangis (Thai: Lilavadi) is another favourite for its lovely plumage and colourful two-tone flowers. Two other useful and common species that aren’t classed as trees but serve very well as privacy ‘curtains’ are the ever-present banana and bamboo. The common varieties of both grow incredibly quickly and can soon form a handy wall to block a neighbouring building, or discourage unwelcome spying.

Planting shrubs and grass
The variety of species in sub-tropical Asia is astonishing, and you’re really spoilt for choice, but ultimately there are a handful of favourites which find their way into every spa and boutique garden. With Thailand covering such a large latitudinal distances there is also quite a range of what will or won’t grow in the north or the south. The colder temperatures of the north result in more deciduous (seasonal flowering) species of trees and shrubs, as well as conifers, while the tropical year-round warmth and humidity closer to the equator favours perennials (year round blooming) and tropical varieties.

But the two most important variables governing a plant’s success are sunlight and water. Average daily direct sun is regulated by the shade of the house, trees and larger shrubs as well as the sun’s movement throughout the day. Meanwhile water is dependent on the drainage, and for this its important which soil mix or container the plant lives in, for you can’t control rainfall. Coastal regions and islands are notorious for their sandy soil, which drains quickly and is lacking in nutrients. Loamy earth isn’t terribly healthy either, but topsoil, humus and manure are cheap and easy to get.

Many of the newer suburbs, particularly in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, are built on former rice fields which are covered in nutrient poor landfill. This is a shame because a wealth of the nation’s nutrient rich paddy is buried and new top soil has to be brought in to create the garden. Of course, the prospect of flooding could be disastrous to a pristine garden. Unfortunately island residents, such as on Samui, are at a disadvatange when it comes to acquiring soil and imported trees.

Which plants you choose depends on your own personal taste. Some propogate very quickly, such as heliconia, and may get out of control, while many flowering bulbs are seasonal and the beds will need refreshing every six months. Those after a trendy Bali-styled garden will opt for popular tropical species, like the Bird’s Nest Fern, Delicious Monster, ‘Elephant Ear’, Tree Fern, Lady Palm, Devil’s Ivy and other ‘boutique’ looking plants such as Xanadu. If you have a larger garden you can experiment with more colourful species and fruit trees,  but ultimately the plant will decide for itself whether it likes it’s position in your garden, you cannot choose for it. As a beginner you will need to experiment, being prepared to move plants around until you find the right amount of shade or sun for them, so be sure to leave them in their nursery pots for a few weeks before planting.

Finally, if you have a decent sized area, you’ll want to create a lawn and ready-turf is cheap and easy to order in Thailand. Within a month you’ll have a near perfect lawn but the common evergreen grass likes a least three hours of sunlight a day, otherwise you will have to opt for the thicker greener ‘Malaysian’ variety which thrives in shade (or sun if watered twice daily). The lighter Japanese grass is quite delicate. A better idea for filling large areas or verges are ground cover varieties such as the golden button, which spreads quickly and adds a pretty layer of green with yellow flowers.

Water features
Finally, what would a trendy garden be without a water feature. These range from lotus ponds to small designer pieces with water spouts, multi-level waterfalls and koi fish swimming about lazily within. Water features alone can quite easily cost more than the rest of the garden, so don’t get carried away with the use of materials and size. Popular features include sandstone murals set in a wall as a backdrop, glossy tiled sides, built-in lights for effect at night, water spouts and props, such as mermaids with amphorae trickling with water, and ferns.

Another wonderful idea that is currently in vogue are giant vases with water tumbling out of them into a catchment basin. And almost endless supply of ceramics and terracotta items, vases, statues, decorative bricks, driftwood and outdoor antiques are found in Thailand especially at the Baan Tawai artisans village south of Chiang Mai, which are useful for creative ideas. The addition of a nice wooden patio deck, ornamental white or brown pebbles and stepping stones made to look like volcanic rock all combine to create a gorgeous outdoor living area in a limited space, which adds a perfect finishing touch to a villa.   Thailand Property Report