Since community gardening in the open public spaces was encouraged a few years ago, community gardens in public and private housing estates, schools and various organisations sprouted up like mushrooms. Interestingly, many of such gardens only have senior citizen participants and middle-aged homemakers and there is hardly any youngsters. Many gardens only focussed on the growing of vegetables and are fenced up to prevent vandalism and theft.
During my recent judging session for the shortlisted entries for the ShowGarden @ South West Competition, although I did not see any fenceless gardens, I witnessed things are already changing. The Community in Bloom from the National Parks Board has been advocating in recent years the growing and inclusion of ornamental plants in community gardens.
The butterfly garden at the Taman Jurong Zone D Community Garden is about 6 months old!
For example, Taman Jurong Zone D Community Garden created a butterfly garden in front of the existing vegetable garden. On a fine day, one can see beautiful butterflies dancing among the flowers and the flowering plants that serve as nectar and food plants add much colour to the largely green and monotonous vegetable garden located next to it. The nearby school and child-care centre use the garden as a teaching ground for students. The Taman Jurong Zone D Community Garden has a dual purpose - it educates children how food is produced and children get to learn more about wildlife in the garden. They get to know how caterpillars turn into butterflies.
The Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden is not your typical “Ah Ma and Ah Gong” community garden - it features a fine example of an ornamental and functional kitchen and flower garden.
Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden is another fine example. It is one of the community gardens led by Mdm Kamisah bte Atan who is a Community in Bloom Ambassador. Mdm Kamisah has succeeded in encouraging her elderly community gardeners to grow flowering ornamental plants in their garden. From my experience, it has been an uphill task to get senior citizen gardeners to grow these plants. Many preferred to grow vegetables. Mdm Kamisah also brought her community gardeners to HortPark, the gardening hub by NParks at Hyderabad Road to get inspired and learn more about the beautiful landscaping examples.
The very impressive and colourful planter bed created by elderly community gardeners.
I admire the excellent colour combination featured in one of the planting beds. Kamisah’s community garden creatively combined a varigated version of Devil’s Backbone (Pedilanthus tithymaloides) which is a medicinal herb, together with another medicinal plant, the Bichetii Grass (Chlorophytum bichetii) and other colourful ornamentals such as the False Heather (Cuphea hyssopifolia) and Coleus spp.
A colourful border that welcomes the visitor to the Jurong Central Zone G Community Garden.
Outside the community garden, Kamisah’s fellow gardeners also planted a colourful hedge using the variegated Chinese Croton (Excoecaria cochinchinensis), Kaempferia pulchra and Loropetalum chinese var. rubrum.
The Herb and Spice Garden in Jurong Primary School. They have my favourite fragrant Butterfly Ginger (Hedychium coronarium) grown in there.
Community gardening is also an activity that is undertaken by schools. Jurong Primary School does it in a big way. It has a herb and spice garden that was done in collaboration with NParks, Jurong Central Zone G Resident’s Committee and Ciba Specialty Chemicals. Parent volunteers from the school, members from the Jurong Central Zone G Resident’s Committee and school students come together regularly to maintain the gardens and they also donate some of their herbs to the Chong Hua Free Clinic.
A tall and magnificent specimen of Bixa orellana in the Herb and Spice Garden whose seeds are harvested for annatto.
Recycling is also prominently featured in the gardens of Jurong Primary School. They used plastic bottles as recycled plant containers where they are all hung up in series to make their trademark hanging gardens. Jurong Primary School also recently started a butterfly garden.
The Hanging Gardens of Jurong Primary School.
As mentioned earlier, many community gardens in public housing estates tend to focus their efforts and interests into the growing of edible plants that are largely about the same from one garden to another. But there can be exceptions.
Cauliflowers in tropical Singapore grown by the gardeners of Lay Carnation Community Garden.
Although it was not the first time for me, I was pleasantly surprised to see cauliflowers being grown in Boon Lay Carnation Community Garden. Probably due to our hot tropical climate, the size of the cauliflower heads was a little on the smaller side. Afterall, cauliflowers, in general, prefer a cooler climate to grow. The plants are grown under a shelter made out of a fine-meshed net to prevent rain damage.
An umbrella over a pot of rice plants in Boon Lay Carnation Community Garden.
Community gardeners are usually conscious of the need to prevent mosquito breeding. I was amused by an umbrella that was stuck over a pot of rice plants when I was in Boon Lay Carnation Community Garden. The gardener there told me the umbrella was used to keep rainwater out of the water-tight ceramic container which used to be salted egg jar so that water accumulation by the jar is reduced. She lamented about the dryish state of her beloved rice plants and the need of water inside the container which rice plants require to grow. The shade provided by the umbrella also reduces sunshine to a substantial extent and rice plants tend to need full, direct sunshine to grow.
(picture courtesy of Ian Chung) 
Wilson Wong
