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A snapshot of the South
A snapshot of the South
To my amazement, the party ‒ celebrating my partner’s family acquisition of a new house ‒ went on all day. I should have expected it. After all, the previous day’s preparations had been exhaustive, and the cost far above what anyone might expect in a poor rural community. No expense had been spared.
Taking a tour of the green
Taking a tour of the green
Last year, I visited friends near Kalasin. Deep in the heart of Isan. Driving north past interminable paddy fields was a dispiriting experience. Barely ‒ and the adverb conveys a literal truth ‒ a tree in sight. Tight-fisted husbandry had meant their remorseless eradication, either because they siphoned up too much precious water, or because the space was needed for the main subsistence crop: rice.
More palms for your garden
More palms for your garden
In our last foray into the subject of palms, I referred to the coconut and its more elegant cousin, the foxtail palm or wodyetia. Like other species such as royal, Bismarck, date and oil palms, they all possess a single trunk crowned with massive fronds. It’s how the layman thinks of palms.
Palm ornamentals for every occasion
Palm ornamentals for every occasion
When I was a boy, I had to endure long waits on sooty railway stations – yes, it was the age of steam – whose grimy walls were plastered with posters of sun-drenched resorts with azure seas, white sands, bronzed maidens and swaying palm trees. In austerity Britain, no beach in the UK looked remotely like that: it was years later that I glimpsed my first grove of bona-fide palms as I drove a rickety ‘banger’ across southern Spain.
Growing goodies in the garden
Growing goodies in the garden
In Thailand one is spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing edible plants to grow. If you can be bothered to count the number of different fruits and vegetables in any fresh market in Phuket, you will find at least 50 different species on display. And nearly all of them are cultivated in Thailand.
Contrasting Favourites: Heliconia and Hibiscus
Contrasting Favourites: Heliconia and Hibiscus
Following our previous article on ‘Sun Gods and Sun Worshippers’, despite the name, the heliconia’s connection with the sun is less obvious than that of the sunflower.
Green Thoughts: Sun Gods and Sun Worshippers
Green Thoughts: Sun Gods and Sun Worshippers
As readers familiar with this column will be aware, I often iterate the point, perhaps ad nauseam, that botanical names are worth mastering since they offer valuable clues to a plant’s characteristics: maybe its place of origin (Japonica), its physical features (odorata) or even its cultural requirements.
Green Thoughts: Bizarre trees bear strange fruit
Green Thoughts: Bizarre trees bear strange fruit
You don’t expect to find trees with bizarre labels such as the “pong-pong”, sausage or cannonball tree, but all these species, alive and well here in Phuket, are so named on account of their strange fruit.
Green Thoughts: Consider the Casuarina
Green Thoughts: Consider the Casuarina
When it comes to tropical trees, the mangrove is top of the pops for environmentalists. Rightly so. It not only protects all our silt-laden and sandy coastlines from erosion, it is a nursery for a pullulating array of marine life.
Green Thoughts: Scraping the barrel ‒ A cautionary tale for our times
Green Thoughts: Scraping the barrel ‒ A cautionary tale for our times
Ever since I started to write for the late-lamented ‘Phuket Gazette’, I have endeavoured, from time to time, to address what I consider to be the burning issue de nos jours ‒ namely the continuing and, as I see it, irreversible destruction of our planet’s natural resources.
Green Thoughts: In the blooming water
Green Thoughts: In the blooming water
As the high annual rainfall continues to soak Phuket during these months of the southwestern monsoon, we continue our look at water-borne plants that feature prominently across Thailand’s floral landscape. Among those are water lilies (nympheas).
Green Thoughts: Selecting containers for your plants
Green Thoughts: Selecting containers for your plants
Your choice of pots is as crucial as your choice of plants. Any professional horticulturalist will tell you that flexible black grow-bags are the cheapest plant containers available. They are light, durable and easy on the pocket. Substantial ones can even be buried in the soil wherein small palms and large shrubs can be contained and yet still draw on the surrounding nutrients and moisture.
Green Thoughts: Top pot plants for shade
Green Thoughts: Top pot plants for shade
It’s a big generalisation, but on balance, the majority of potted plants available in the tropics enjoy a degree of shade. I am thinking of varieties of nephrolepis such as Boston, maidenhair, or bird’s nest ferns, variegated dieffenbachias, aglaonemas ‒ now available in striking reddish shades ‒ philodendrons, purple and green dracaenas, hymenocallis or spider lilies, spathiphyllum, the vast array of bromeliads. The list goes on. Go to any garden centre  in Phuket and these fellows will be cosseted in a shaded area, usually under green netting, along with phalaenopsis orchids and an abundant supply of mosquitoes. 
Green Thoughts: Army of Ants ‒ Low Life among the Formicidae
Green Thoughts: Army of Ants ‒ Low Life among the Formicidae
Last night I was woken by a burning sensation. It started on my right bicep, then I felt another irritation on my forearm. Finally, my wrist. Mystified, I went into the bathroom, where something dropped off me and fell to the tiled floor. The culprit was a large red ant. I squashed it unceremoniously and watched as a microscopic fellow ant, maybe one millimetre long and a hundredth its size, danced round the now lifeless corpse and – lo and behold – began carrying and dragging it to some unknown destination.
Green Thoughts: Top picks for container gardening
Green Thoughts: Top picks for container gardening
Why bother with potted plants if you have a proper garden? After all, container plants are labour-intensive, need frequent watering, and will eventually get root-bound and need repotting. True, true and true again. But what if you live in a condominium with a cramped balcony, or rent a shophouse with only a concrete parking space at the front of the property? Why not put plants in pots and create a mini-garden. Hey presto… Lots of Thais do.
Good Vibrations: The Joy of Gardens – and Gardening
Good Vibrations: The Joy of Gardens – and Gardening
If you write about gardening for a publication, you will encounter two different kinds of readers. A few, and fortunately they are few and far between, ask for help, often with no please or thank you, and lack the courtesy to write back after you have spent time in addressing their queries. Fortunately, the commonality of gardeners is a happy one, and the majority of correspondents are genuine enthusiasts, generous in their response to any advice. They reinforce my conviction that gardening is a beneficial and life-enhancing activity, not only for our floral charges , but also for those of us who cherish them.
Green Thoughts: The mysterious migration of plants
Green Thoughts: The mysterious migration of plants
Because the local climate is so conducive to growth, we tend to conclude that most plants in our tropic gardens originated in Thailand or at least Southeast Asia. Not true.
Green Thoughts: How does your garden grow?
Green Thoughts: How does your garden grow?
As readers of these columns can attest, for years, I included a ‘Tip for Gardeners’ to my weekly peregrinations about plants. Due to space restrictions, the practice was discontinued. Now, making up for lost time, I propose to devote this article entirely to hands-on advice.
Green Thoughts: Going for Gold ‒ the Allamanda
Green Thoughts: Going for Gold ‒ the Allamanda
After the rain has gone and we are well into the dry season in Phuket, all the flowering shrubs show off their wares. Often as I look out from my study, I  can see a mass of golden blooms festooning the front wall of the garden. Nothing unusual about that, you may say. And you would be right; After all, the island is not short of spectacular yellow shrubs. But what is surprising about this one – allamanda cathartica ‒ is that once it starts, it never stops flowering. Come rain, come shine, the blooms appear every day, and unless there are high winds or torrential storms to knock them to the ground, they are produced in great profusion.
Green Thoughts: The ins and outs of fertilizers
Green Thoughts: The ins and outs of fertilizers
Today I bought some plant fertilizer. Hardly an earth-shattering event. But certainly an earth-improving one. True, there are agents which actually alter the very structure of your soil for the better – natural substances such as peat, coconut fibre or compost or more sophisticated agents such as vermiculite or volcanic perlite. All these so-called ‘amendments’ are named on account of their capacity to improve texture and aeration in your garden’s soil. Thus, in terrain that is light and sandy, they will be needed for better water retention: in flower beds composed of heavy clay, amendments will assist drainage and friability. Horses for courses.