Together with the help of my friends from Green Culture Singapore, we have created a little tropical paradise in the heart of Serangoon North Ave 2. The tropical themed garden features exotic bromeliads and airplants, ornamental musas (bananas), spiral gingers (costus), heliconias and various other gingers.
Such a garden is perhaps the first of its kind that exists in a public housing estate and it was my dream to bring such gardens which often occur only some private home gardens or the only other place that has this currently is the Singapore Botanic Gardens, to the HDB heartlands. Of course, what my friends and I created cannot be compared SBG in terms of size and the number of plants. I should be submitting it for the upcoming Community in Bloom Awards 2008, in addition to the other larger community garden, if we can complete the landscaping work in time.
Last April, I was given the mandate to landscape this piece of land from my ex-RC Chairman. The land was once of a former community garden which fell into disrepair and neglect. Rather than letting it be paved up with concrete again, I gathered a group of exotic plant enthusiasts from my forum to work together in this community project. My friends from the forum, Phillipe and Chong Ren, drop by occasionally when they are available and free from work commitments during the weekends. During weekdays, we either sms, chat on the phone or MSN to update each other of the progress of the garden as well as discuss what other interesting and exciting things we can bring to the garden.
All the plants are bought by me and painstakingly chosen and bought over a period of at least 6 months. I must say I am doing it as if I am choosing diamonds or some precious gems! A couple of plants are priceless because they simply cannot be bought from any source and were donated to me by a few plant collector friends. Some people have expressed a sense of awe when they found out that I actually forked out the money from my savings to do all this – all in the name to just bring these plants to the public here so that they can see them without having to go to the Botanic Gardens. Over there, even if they do visit, there is no guide to tell them what they are seeing and hence they will be missing out the juicy details of these plants.
Of course, the garden’s locked up at all times for security reasons and opened when I am working in the garden. A few thefts in the past have rendered the lock and key necessary. I am still thinking of how we can make this garden more accessible to the public. A few lucky passers-by will get a chance to come in to view the garden where they get also a personalised tour conducted by me. A couple have obtained free gifts, i.e. airplants, from me.
This community garden is now at its finishing touches. I will be bringing some wood chips to lay on the ground to give it a more natural look as well as I would be ordering more bromeliads from the US to add to the existing collection which will cost me another several grand. My friends and I thought that these colourful gems of the South American forest will add more of the exotic and expensive touch to this garden. I am planning to bring in plants from the various genera of Bromeliaceae to represent this family of plants where the most common member we know of is the edible pineapple.
Sad to say, there have been massive complaints from the residents, perhaps due to the obvious fact that they are ignorant, which has brought me undue amounts of distress and unhappiness. A few have complained why a garden has to be fenced up to protect “seemingly” cheap, ugly jungle plants and that it is exclusive to myself. Others have questioned about the possibility of mosquito breeding where I must admit that I am the one who is more concerned than anyone of them and is taking every measure to ensure this doesn’t happen. There are a handful which make up who cannot appreciate the “messiness” which is often seen in tropical gardens.
I have shown the first aerial picture taken of this garden to my fellow Green Culture Singapore members, one of which is a professional landscaper, who all gave their most frank feedback – the garden is now at its best and well-planned. It is a very, unique feature in the estate that my residents should learn to appreciate and cherish.
