Showing 1-10 of 16 results
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Surviving the desert
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 25/09/2016
» In last week's Green Fingers, I mentioned that most plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen during the day but sansevierias do just the opposite: They purify and freshen the air at night while we are asleep. How do they do it?
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Reach for your buzzers
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/07/2016
» I know that bees gather nectar and pollen from flowers to produce honey to feed their young. As they fly from one flower to another they pollinate the flowers. I also know that there are beekeepers who raise bees for their honey. The bees are let out in the morning to gather nectar and return to their hives before nightfall.
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Exploring the world garden
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 05/06/2016
» During my visit to the Philippines two months ago, a good friend of mine gave me a bag of pistachio nuts which her sister, Pin, had sent her from the US. Pin and her family live in Delano, California, and she regularly sends food packages that includes pistachio nuts, almonds, dates and raisins to her sister in the Philippines.
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Nature’s air conditioners
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/01/2016
» While I was writing this, extreme weather was wreaking havoc in many parts of the world. In South America, vast areas in Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay were hit in what was said to be the “worst flooding in 50 years”. Deadly tornadoes, snowstorms and floods brought winter woes to Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Oklahoma, Arkansas and several other states in the US Midwest and South, and record-breaking rains brought floods that devastated parts of northern England and Scotland.
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The best way to turn over that new leaf
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 03/01/2016
» I have a young friend who lives in Fresno, California. She teaches science in high school but does volunteer work in her spare time, taking a group of elderly people to a public park to do gardening. “There are plots in the park where the elderly can plant flowers or vegetables,” she said when we talked on the phone recently. “They love it. They find it invigorating. Growing plants has given them a new purpose in life.”
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I heard it through the grapevine
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 13/12/2015
» When I was in grade school, my father tried to germinate seeds of grapes imported from California at our home in the rice growing region of Central Luzon in the Philippines. He did not expect the seeds to germinate, as he knew the fruit was grown in a climate so different from ours.
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Grow your own grub
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 22/11/2015
» Readers must have heard of His Majesty the King’s por piang (self-sufficiency) economy for farmers. Based on the assumption that a farmer owns 15 rai of land, it advises the land be divided four ways: 30%, or 4.5 rai, for a pond or water reservoir, 30% for a rice field, 30% for vegetable and fruit orchards, and 10%, or 1.5 rai, for a residential area.
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No need to dig deep into your wallet
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 16/08/2015
» My friend, Imee, is a keen gardener and an incurable plant lover. She would rescue dying plants discarded by her neighbours and nurse them back to health. She has a green thumb, and in no time these would be thriving and bearing flowers or pups in her beautiful garden in San Diego, California.
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La vie en rose
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 07/06/2015
» ‘A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness…” English poet John Keats was not thinking about roses in particular when he wrote that poem in 1818; he only mentioned “musk-rose blooms” in passing. Yet, there is probably no other flower which has given so much joy since ancient times than the rose.
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Don’t waste a drop
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 12/04/2015
» It is a Thai custom to make merit on religious and other important holidays. This Songkran, three days of celebration which starts tomorrow, you can be sure that large crowds will be converging on Sanam Luang and major temples in Bangkok and the provinces to make merit by giving alms to monks.
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