Showing 41 - 50 of 51
What's the secret to a great garden? Understanding plants needs
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 19/05/2013
» When I read last week's column, I realised that I had been day-dreaming at the keyboard about what I would include if I were to write a book on plants and gardening in Thailand and did not actually answer Jan Steuten's letter. A resident of Chiang Mai for 21 years and an avid gardener, he wanted to know how to take care of indoor and garden plants, which was why he was asking whether there was such a book in English to guide him.
Gardening in Thailand: We'd love to do it by the book
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/05/2013
» Jan Steuten from Chiang Mai writes that he has been living in Thailand for 21 years, but "I never found a manageable and handy book on the subject of how to take care of indoor plants and garden plants. The few times I've seen books on the subject, they cost 1,000 or more baht. I would like to ask you where I can find such a book, in English, at a reasonable price of say 500 baht or less."
Bad news lavender lovers _ These sweet smellers can't take the heat
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/03/2013
» Pavan Khimesra has been unsuccessfully trying to grow lavender in his Bangkok home. ''The seeds just do not seem to germinate,'' he wrote. ''I understand that the plant grows in the Mediterranean climate so it might be possible to grow it in Bangkok. I am trying to grow the munstead dwarf, hidcote dwarf and true lavender varieties, which I think are all types of Lavandula angustifolia. Lavender grows in hardiness zones 4-10 as classified by the US Department of Agriculture [Bangkok is 10], and in the American Horticultural Society's plant heat zones 2-11 [Bangkok is 12].
Casting a dry spell: Moist not a must for plants
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/03/2013
» Call me ignorant, but I was already an adult when I realised the value of dried flowers for interior decorating. Until then, the only flowers I had seen, in my native Philippines as well as in my adoptive home of Thailand, were fresh, plastic or made of cloth or paper.
Keep valentine love blooming Year-Round
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/02/2013
» Valentine's Day has come and gone. Last year, my husband, ML Charuphant, gave me a single long-stemmed red rose. This year he thought I deserved 10. Was I happy? Call me ungrateful, but what filled my heart with joy were not the flowers but my honey's sweet words, ''I love you, and will love you till the end of time.'' He says that often, and not just on Valentine's Day.
Short-Sighted greed, Driving payung purge
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 07/10/2012
» Retired Royal Thai Army general Visnu Kongsiri wrote to ask about Siam rosewood timber following recent reports of it being logged illegally and seizures of logs obtained unlawfully. ''What is this wood used for and why is it so expensive? Can it be grown commercially?'' he asked.
Get your fair share
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/06/2012
» Better late than never. This seems to be the slogan of the Kaset Fair, which used to be held for nine days every year from the last Friday of January to the first Saturday of February. Delayed by last year's floods, which put Kasetsart University under one metre of water for nearly a month, the annual agricultural fair is now being held in the university grounds and you have until Wednesday to check out what it has to offer.
Hard to find trees turn up full of flavour
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 25/03/2012
» A reader named Malcolm wrote me an email to say that he is now the proud owner of a 10m fruit-bearing black sapote (Diospyros digyna). He said he grew it from a seed that he obtained from a tropical fruit farm in Australia 10 years ago.
Make the moist of it
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 18/03/2012
» The exact number of trees killed by the floods that devastated nearly one third of Thailand from August last year to mid-January may never be known. But if we take into consideration the fact that no tree is able to remain alive in stagnant water for long, it is safe to estimate that hundreds of thousands if not millions of trees were wiped out. After years of hard labour tending their fruit trees, orchard growers in provinces ravaged by the floods will have to start all over again.
On the track of a mystery melon
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 11/03/2012
» For nearly 15 years, Peter and Rita Zimmermann have regarded Thailand as their second home, spending five to six months of the year in Bangkok to escape the European winter and then returning to Germany in the summer. Both gardening enthusiasts, their home in Freiburg in the Black Forest area near the German border with Switzerland and France is full of botanical reminders of sunny, tropical Thailand.