2017, We're growing Vertical!

After a quiet year in 2016 following family troubles, Plant A Tree Bangkok is back with new energy, and needs you more than ever!

Since I don't have a place and a regular lifestyle to grow trees, I have none ready for the coming raining season. So, we're going to proceed a little differently this year: I would like all of you to grow trees directly at home! If each and everyone of us grows 2-3 trees, we'll have enough to plant a Forest!

It's easy because we're going to use very hardy trees, for a very specific purpose: plant a vertical forest, Guerrilla Style as usual, in one of Bangkok's abandoned towers! These trees (Ficuses of all kind) can be found readily in Bangkok streets, we'll take them there.

I will show you how to grow them, and tell you more about this year's plan during this first meetup (Facebook Link). Comment below if you don't have a FB account and would like to be informed ;)

How to grow stuff to plant in the streets? :D

People often ask me how I find the trees I plant in the streets. Really, there are lots of sources, but the easiest and most fun way to find a tree is to grow it at home! If you have children, they will love playing with the soil, watering the pot, and they will  marvel at the seed growing into a small tree that gets bigger every day! Kids will love it even more if you get the seed from fruits you eat together!

Fruits easy to find now: lamyai, tamarind...

Now, if you want to keep your tree longer, or transplant it to the streets, other containers might be more appropriate, such as plastic bottles, coffee cups with a cap, milk boxes, plastic bags...

The idea is to be able to remove the tree from the container without damaging the roots.

I also like the idea to reuse something we otherwise just use once and throw to the trash. When we reuse it, we give it a second life, a second purpose.

Plastic dinosaos will do to! :D

Plastic bottles, coffee cups & empty coconuts

Bigger bottles are better. Keep the cap on top,  to keep moisture in

easy ! :D 

It's good to have something to keep water under your pot, especially if you grow on a balcony or a window sill. Growing conditions on balconies are very difficult: strong sun or full shade, walls that keep the heat, wind that dries everything and can make your tree fall (tie it up well!)...

If you have a plate, or a cup, or a plastic sheet under you pot, the soil will keep moist longer, and your tree has more chances to survive. Plus, you don't have to water everyday, you can relax and check only once every few days! :D

For highly motivated tree planters: how to set a Guerrilla Planting Nursery! :D

By definition, if it's guerrilla, you don't ask for permission, you just do it!

If you have a house, you're lucky! Just find a spot near water faucet, 50% shade. Here is a picture from P'Jude nursery, very simple & efficient setup!

P'Jude planted hundreds of trees in Bangkok, his nursery works super fine! :D 

If like most of us you live in a condo, things get a bit more fun!

I've never had problems with the management, and i don't think you will, provided you keep a few things when you choose the right spot in your condo. Choose a spot where:

. trees do not bother anyone (don't take a parking space)
. water won't damage anything when you water the trees

Now, to give your trees the best chances to grow, choose a spot that:
. is not all the time in direct sunlight . is close to water source (be lazy!)
. upstairs parking lots! if there is some light coming in, it will make a great nursery! On upper floors, the parking might not have reached full capacity and there could be lots of space to install a guerrilla nursery! You most likely will meet resistance from the management, so if they bother you after you set up the place, try to negotiate staying just a few weeks (don't be specific, you need 3 months minimum), and you might get a reluctant acceptance.
That's all you need, party time! :D

If you're not sure you found the right spot, my way to proceed is to start somewhere, not far from the condo security guards. When they see you set the place up, they will come to talk, and if they don't like the spot you chose, they will advice you another one. Most people are kind, give them a chance to help you, you will be surprised! ;)

It will not work everywhere of course, especially the new condos with extreme and stupid security rules. Still worth trying it, isn't it!?!



Here are a few pictures from the nursery I set up in my condo a few years ago. Total budget less than 500 bahts, including everything: soil, bamboos...

Perfect setup: about 1x2meters, water nearby, not bother anyone, 50% shade 

Roof opens up easily

Plastic sheet to keep all bottles moist - too busy to come every day!

#growstuff #growstuffforcheap #guerrillanursery #guerrillatree #guerrillatreeplanting #growstuffonyourparkinglot #plantatreebangkok

T18 - Plant a tree at Democracy Monument under Martial Law !

Tree : T018

Specie : Plumeria sp. - ลีลาวดี 

Street : Thanon Dinso (Pencil street), opposite Satri Witthaya School - ถนน ดินสอ

Notes : Martial law, excellent soil, friendly neighbours

Traffic was just as bad as I expected, but the streets around Democracy Monument where surprisingly really quiet. It looks that the protesters' stages nearby have been deserted. A few sand-bag barricades here and there block the way, but not many soldiers in sight, I guess the action must be somewhere else...

 Sandbag barricades on Ratchadamnoen Rd

Cosy spot in view of Democracy Monument 

As usual, people around the spot started chitchatting with us. The lady owning a food stall right in front of the tree was quite happy : "every other spot has grown up trees and shade, but not us !". Raining season having begun, nature will take care of itself and she won't even have to do anything, though she seemed quite motivated to water and take care of the new tree.

What pleased me the most though were these two street kids, obviously used to spending their days on the streets, begging etc, who came to us first and picked-up right away what we were doing. They were very supportive : "Yeah, cool, planting some trees is good for everyone, you guys rock !". 20 seconds later there were gone with big smiles !

Happy tree

I must confess this tree is most likely not a good choice for a sidewalk : frangipani trees have a rather wide shape, with branches spreading from the trunk from quite low when te tree is young. So well, it might not stay there for very long...

 Albert at work again !

Albert joined me after travelling by bus all night back from Chiang Rai, where he was demolishing earth buildings damaged during the earthquakes last week. 

After planting T18, we went back to T16 which is growing quite fine and watered it as well.

T16 growing just fine :)

Some guy put up a fence next to it, and it is also protected by the electric box. Will this tree be left enough time to reach the wires above ?

Flagship Vs. Ownership

Went today to plant a flag next to T7.

When I planted the tree with my wife yesterday, some neighbor expressed very dubious feeling when seeing us in action : doubt to the point of contained agressivity. Planting a (tiny) tree in a street, not even ours, is obviously very suspicious to her. I don't blame her : how often have I felt the same thick layer of incomprehension from my co-citizens, back home ? Ignorance is a plague, everywhere it strikes.

Anyways, I felt that I should better flag the sapling.

ทรงพระเจริญ - Long Live the King !

Flagship Vs. Ownership

This flag is obviously not a token of ownership, because that tree is out there like any other tree, for everybody to enjoy, and nobody to own. Who could claim legal ownership of this little guy ? I don't own that tree, nobody does.

It's a street tree, subject to its fate, and anybody might at any moment step on it or cut it down. When it'll reach a decent size, everybody will enjoy the shade, the beauty and the cleaner air it provides. Neighbors surely will plant signs and nails to advertise on it, maintenance teams will chop its branches off, lovers might carve its bark, etc... So be it...

But now that it's so very tiny and puny, this flag will ascertain that somebody takes care of the tree. I gives passersby a hint that this sapling should not be messed with as it is not abandoned to its fate. That will provide it a bit more protection, I hope.

Flagship for understanding

Because that flag's message is a blessing intended for His Majesty, that flag should also send a clear sign to the few doubtful neighbors or passersby : that tree has been planted here in respect with His Majesty's general recommendations to the Thais to take care of their environment. The King relentlessly repeats how important for the future it is to plant trees, so seeing this flag associated with a sapling will be instantly understood by any Thai : this tree will help improve your world.

It is at least the highest hope I have when planting this tree : it will help improve the world.

2010 Planting objectives

Part of my new year resolutions was to define how I expect to practice this tree planting hobby in the coming year.


1 - plant, plant, and plant

Time constraints came to mind first : I wish to limit my participation to what my motorcycle can carry comfortably at any time, being 4 x 2L bottles of water. This limits my actions to only watering 4 trees regularly at any time, not too far from my home. So, after replanting the missing T3 and T4, which are watered by someone else, I can still plant and take care of another 2 trees.

Basically, I can plant more trees, provided they are in any location that will not require me to look after it on a regular basis afterwards. That means I can also plant in any other location that gets watered either by municipal/corporate gardeners, or by good souls who wish to join this project.


2 - spot suitable planting locations

Another corollary is that I can basically plant anything, anywhere, during the monsoon, when the sky itself will look after these fragile baby trees. So one of my objectives now is to spot and map suitable planting spots, that will be planted during the raining season. I already saw many more suitable spots while cruising in Bangkok's streets ; some of these locations could really do with more trees cleaning the air and providing shade. All would benefit from the reassuring presence of 'greenery' around us.


3 - recruit

I'm not good at this, but I just love company ! :)

Anybody is welcome who wishes to help, if only a little bit. Just indicating me accurately a suitable planting spot would help. Coming along for a planting session is fun ! Planting, watering and watching your own tree grow is just a great feeling.


4 - think big

I've been thinking over Berlin's plant adoption scheme (see Andy's comments), and have also found evidence of sponsoring parks/trees planting in both Laos and Singapore. Conversations with friends with interest in these questions led me to probe a few personalities about developping a large tree planting 'sponsoring project'. The first inputs have been quite positive.

I do not wish to develop this idea further here at the moment, since there is still so much to be defined yet.

Planting the very first trees

It's been some time now that I want to plant trees, plenty of trees, and see them grow big and tall. It's not such an easy thing to do when you do not own land, and live in one of the biggest cities in the world. I love Bangkok, and feel lucky to have a chance to be here. But when it comes to planting trees, cities don't provide you with much opportunities : you need an actual access to the soil through the concrete. You also want to plant a tree where it's not going to be damaged too much, or even cut down by other people.

So after much thinking, my first plan was to plant a tree next to my home, in replacement of another one that died and has been removed. This way, I just replace what has come to be missing.


I then decided to wait for december 5th to plant the first tree, in honor of His Majesty the King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who relentlessly repeats how important it is to plant trees for everybody's health, wealth and spirit. I also decided to plant that first tree as close as possible to the heart of the King's birthday celebrations.


This is how I found myself digging a (very small) hole in the ground, amidst a crowd of bemused Thais, all of them wearing pink shirts, smiling and kidding me around. They pretty much understood my purpose and the symbolic date without need for explanations, and took turns for a series of pictures with me and the newly planted tree. Just too bad i didn't bring my camera, or thought of getting a copy...

The first tree planted (Dipterocarpus), after one week

My wife and I bought bottles of water (forgot to bring some), watered the tree, planted a flag next to it, and that was it ! Since then, it got 2 liters of water almost every days of this past week, and looks great !  We came back yesterday with another same tree, to fill the available spot right next to it.

only 40 cm high, but already looking forward to reach the sky !

I now wish to continue this fun and useful activity, and have already noticed some suitable spots for more trees ! :D