Showing 91-100 of 150 results
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Pharmacy on the forest floor
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 10/11/2013
» After making a name for herself as one of Thailand's top marine biologists, Hansa Chansang took advantage of an early retirement scheme to pursue her other passion: growing trees. She cleared most of her family's rubber plantation in Cherngtalay, near the popular Laguna tourist area in Phuket's Thalang district, and planted it with many different species of forest trees. Visiting her plantation recently, I marvelled not only at how tall her trees have grown since I last saw them five years ago, but also at the diversity of wild plants growing on the floor of the man-made forest.
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Too big for your roots
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 17/11/2013
» Reader Alan Platt, whose letter last month triggered a two-part article on bamboo, sent me another email to say that I was right about his plants being too big for their containers. "For their continued good health, I know I should put them in bigger pots," he wrote, "but I have a problem. I don't want them to grow any bigger, which will happen if I repot them.
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Fifty ways of shade
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 24/11/2013
» Reader Ekachai sent me an email saying that his house faces south. "The afternoon sun is unbearable especially from November 'til May," he wrote. "I would like to grow trees to help shade the garage roof. Unfortunately, there's no place where I can plant trees, as the ground is paved with cement. I heard we can grow trees in big circular concrete blocks. Can I have your comment, please?"
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Not such a prickly customer
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 01/12/2013
» Every now and then I receive an email asking about soursop. Some wanted to know where they could buy the fruit or a tree sapling, others if they could plant the tree on their property. The latest email came from Edward Letts, who is wondering whether it is possible to grow it in the far north, in Chiang Rai province.
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A flora in the system
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 08/12/2013
» A reader writing under the pseudonym ''Mrs Clover'' bought a passiflora with flowers a few months ago. ''At the moment the plant is very healthy with lots and lots of leaves, but no flowers,'' she wrote. ''As suggested by the seller, I apply fertiliser once a week, but it doesn't work. Your advice would be most appreciated.''
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Growing your just desserts
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 15/12/2013
» I was visiting my daughter, Nalinee, in Phuket recently when she decided to make a dessert known as bua loy. It is made of sticky rice flour fashioned into tiny balls and cooked in coconut milk sweetened with sugar, then topped with coconut cream. The sticky rice balls are cooked when they float, hence the name, bua loy, which literally means ''floating lotus'' although they do not have the faintest resemblance to the flower of that name. Add whole eggs and it becomes bua loy khai wan.
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Adenium thrive when thirsty
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 08/09/2013
» Continuous rains brought on by a succession of tropical depressions in the Philippines prompted a friend in Manila to send me a message of distress. "It has been raining for the past weeks and the sun rarely shines for long. I put the plants that you gave me in a dry place but some of the leaves are turning yellow. Help! I'm panicking, I'm afraid they might die. What should I do?", she asked.
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For plump fruit, Starve the tree
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 29/09/2013
» Five years ago I planted a Moringa oleifera tree, known in Thai as marum, on one side of my house. It began flowering when it was about three years old and since then has been flowering heavily most months of the year. Although I have seen insects pollinating the flowers, they never developed into fruit.
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When they can't stand the heat
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 13/10/2013
» A mother sent me an email from the UK to say that she was coming to Thailand in November and would like to bring vegetable and flower seeds for her daughter, who lives in Rayong. "She mentioned growing plants in pots and I suggested that she plant vegetables in her garden. What would be the best flower and vegetable seeds to take there? I would appreciate any advice you could give me," she wrote.
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Blowing away the arguments against big trees in Bangkok
B Magazine, Normita Thongtham, Published on 21/07/2013
» Last week's column on Pterocarpus indicus, or pradoo, in bloom on Rama IV Road made me pay closer attention to trees along Bangkok's streets. Five days a week I have to fetch my grandson from school in the Dusit area, and from my gate near Suan Phlu to the school, I pass by many trees along the way.
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