Greenery among concrete jungles

Hey guys! It’s been a long time since we’ve updated due to the holidays being an intense period for the team as we prepare for our trip to Phnom Penh! As part of our YEP pre-trip programme, OVE’16 has decided to focus mainly on the rising food security issues in Singapore, hence researching and learning more about the urban gardening scene in Singapore. This helps to provide our members with more insights of gardening which hence would benefit us as we are intending to set up 2 aquaponics systems in Cambodia to help combat the dry seasons.

The team visited a total of 5 gardens spread out over a span of 3 weekends!

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1. R O O F T O P G R E E N E R Y

On 26th June 2016, we had the chance to visit the Nee Soon South Zone D Rooftop Community Garden with one of the local urban farmers, Chun Yeow. It was an eye-opening experience for us as these gated gardens are usually not open to public. Located on the rooftop of an inconspicuous carpark in Khatib, it was a refreshing experience exploring a rooftop garden amongst the concrete jungle known as Singapore. We were all impressed with the community’s effort in creating and maintaining such green spaces in the neighbourhood. Launched on 7th September 2014 by MP Lee Bee Wah, the rooftop garden’s main purpose was to transform a seemingly ordinary carpark rooftop into a unique community garden for green-fingered residents as well as a platform to build community spirit among residents. Hence, along with 12 other passionate gardeners, the rooftop was transformed into a blooming garden!

Making our grand entrance to the garden!

Plots of land with well-trimmed horticulture

The simple yet neat rooftop garden was divided into individual plots of land that brought us back to our Harvest Moon days!

Gardeners are free to decorate their plot of land in any interesting way they like!

We also learnt about organic composts that gardeners would make using unwanted parts of plants and rubbish enzyme to help eliminate pests such as aphids. This eliminates the use of chemical fertilizers, hence promoting both organic farming as well as creating use for “rubbish”.

Chun Yeow basically gave us a mint buffet as we were allowed to pick as much mint as we wanted and so we did!

Our extremely friendly guide for the day: Chun Yeow!

The urban rooftop garden visit was definitely a valuable experience, providing us with more insights and knowledge to our pre-trip research and aided in spreading awareness and gardening knowledge among our family and friends.

Food for thought:

Throughout the visit, I was amazed by the passion and tenacity that these local urban farmers possess for urban farming and the environment. It made me realize how current Singaporeans have been too blessed with our food sources, often taking things for granted and turning a blind eye to prominent issues such as food security. Hence, the trip made me understand that despite Singapore being an affluent nation, Singaporeans still lack basic knowledge and selflessness with regards to the environment as many claim that they are simply “too busy” to help do their part in making Singapore more environmentally-friendly.

- Amanda

Although it might be true that green fingers do not exist in everyone, it does not necessarily mean that all hope is lost. Through continuous tries and research, Chun Yeow persevered in growing the vegetables that he once failed in despite claiming that he has ‘black fingers’ which kill everything they touched.

- Royce

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2. W I L D G R E E N S

The team’s next visit was to Hillview Connections NC which was located approximately 10 minutes’ walk away from Hillview MRT. Situated right in front of a forested area, sandwiched between Hillview Apartments and Mera Lodge condominium, the garden was extremely different as compared to the neat and well-manicured rooftop garden that we have visited in the previous week!

Managed by a group of passionate gardeners that are mostly residents of the area, the gardeners are given the freedom to grow fruits, vegetables and herbs in the garden without any restrictions from NParks.

our poster boy very amazed by the papayas!

However, the issue of redevelopment and reclaiming of land that the yearly-leased garden is situated on has been a constant worry for the gardeners that has spent a lot of time and effort in taking care of their sprawling and lush garden

The team was exceptionally impressed by the gardeners’ persistence and zeal in maintaining the garden despite facing countless challenges such as experiencing a decline in gardeners, lack of a water piping system as well as complaints from residents of the area. It was extremely heartening to witness the passion and love these individuals possess in maintaining a green oasis in midst of concrete buildings.

Food for thought:

"The resourcefulness of the gardeners are very inspiring, as they are able to source for novel ways to collect water, build the wooden stands, solve their problems and improve their gardens through whatever resources they happen to get." - Pei Lin

"Growing food is not an easy task as there are a lot of considerations to go about doing it, from the amount of water and sunlight that the plants require right down to the soil quality." - Pei Xian

"I found out that community gardens, set up by Residents' Committee are common in public housing neighbourhoods. However, due to the lack of support from the government, private estates lack these community gardens. The residents in Hillview showed me that through their passion, they are willing to come together and manually develop the plot of land into a garden for the community." - Erwin

3. N U T U R I N G T H E K A M P U N G S P I R I T

For our final garden visit, the team visited One Kind House, a private estate in Telok Karau that has transformed into a sprawling space full of lush greenery and creative minds. One Kind House was significantly different from the past few gardens that we have visited, mainly moving away from establishing themselves as merely a conventional agricultural garden. Apart from being a flourishing urban garden, One Kind House aims to provide young talents such as young chefs, innovators and artists the platform to unleash their creativity through functioning as a venue for these young talents to practice their craft.

One Kind House stood out along the rows of seemingly identical bungalows with its' greenery

Fascinated by the huge crops!

Hydroponics system and vertical farming

A few of the many artworks on display

Priding themselves as what a 21st century kampong should be (One Kind House, 2016), One Kind House founder Mr Calvin Soh explained to the team about his motivations in establishing such a community while treating us to a plate of homemade Char Kuay Teow. He explained how it has been an extremely difficult yet rewarding journey as he quit his high-paying and prestigious career and leaped into building up One Kind House, replacing his branded wheels for a pickup truck instead. Calvin has always been a unique individual, choosing to stray from the well-walked path of success being equivalent to wealth as dictated by our results-oriented society. One Kind House was established mainly due to the fact that Calvin wanted to spend more time with his children, educating and encouraging them as well as other individuals to step out of the mundane regime of chasing after paper qualifications and wealth, focusing on enhancing oneself through innovation and creativity.

The team worked off the calories of the Char Kuay Teow as us city kids got their hands dirty with soil and weeds.

Calvin giving us a demonstration on how we should cut the plants!

Gideon hard at work cutting them weeds

However, one point was evident: through One Kind House, Calvin hopes that the establishment would be able to benefit society and the community while also acting as a source of income through workshops and classes. By providing the platform for individuals and strangers to meet one another while engaged in activities such as cooking and gardening, Calvin aims to ignite the kampong spirit he has experienced in his childhood that has since disappeared as Singapore becomes an increasingly modern nation.

Food for thought:

Calvin is a well-read individual with an unique and different understanding of our current society. He made me realize the exponential changes in this world, that something we are working towards may no longer be of value in the future. This made me think twice of my future career plans.

- Carisa

Sometimes it is hard to accept that things are don’t turn out the way you want from the get go. In gardening, it is often that this happens because you won’t know which of your plants would be successful, or even if they grew, the crop yield might be a different story from what you expect. Patience, taking the effort to build up the things around are all important traits to have. - Brendan

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Through the 3 visits, it was apparent that more remains to be done with regards to urban gardening in Singapore. Although numerous urban gardening opportunities has been identified to be able to tie in the daily lives of Singaporeans such as inculcating planting with HDB blocks, such an initiative has still not been carried out. Hence, it is crucial that Singapore slowly but steadily starts to establish an urban gardening culture among Singaporeans as majority of Singaporeans are generally unaware of the rising food security issues that has been identified in Singapore society. To encourage such a culture would still require some effort from both top-down and bottom-up approaches. It is extremely heart-warming to see passionate individuals trying to start such a culture in Singapore and hopefully in the decades to come, urban gardening would become an inculcated part of each and every Singaporean.

Ps: Please look forward to our next post and wish us good luck as we embark on our trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia!