Monthly Archives: June 2009

The Bear Fruit (B.F.) series 2009 is a collaborative effort between National Parks Board (NParks) and National Library Board (NLB). It is a process-oriented programme that provides a platform for amateurs and enthusiasts to be inspired and turn their gardening passion and interests into reality.

Stretching from June to July, this unique programme bridges participants to subject matter experts and resources to help them fully achieve their aspirations. A diverse group of 25 participants, ranging from CEOs, lecturers to retirees participated in this programme last Saturday. 

At the guided tour around the Terrarium Arcade.

The highlight of the series will be when participants make use of their newly found skills to design and build their very own terrariums. The completed works of the participants will be showcased in an exhibition at the Central Lending Library, and will subsequently be permanently exhibited at the Terrarium Corner at HortPark.

I am proud to represent my division in NParks to be the one who shared with B.F. participants good horticulture know-how. I hope I inspired them to strive to be better gardeners. The participants first gathered around HortPark’s Terrarium Arcade where I shared with them the novelty of a terrarium, how it works, steps they need to take to make one, as well as, maintenance they need to do so that their set-up will be a successful one. I was grateful to one of the participants who handed me some tissue papers that I used to wipe my perspiration (the hot and humid weather then wasn’t too helpful!).

Sharing indoor gardening know-how at the Lifestyle Corner.

After the gathering at the Terrarium Arcade, all of us adjourned to HortPark’s Lifestyle Corner where I brought all participants on another guided tour. There, they got acquainted with various indoor plants, learned ways on how they can grow them at home successfully and introduced to them various vertical gardening concepts.

Basic gardening know-how talk at the Flower Room.

After lunch, the participants sat in the Flower Room for a talk where I gave them an introduction on basic plant care. I went through with everyone the factors that affect plant growth and recommended all to grow the right plant for the right location so that success rate is higher.

I believe there is no such thing such as ‘green’ or ‘black’ fingers. All we need to know is to understand what a plant needs and as their care-taker, we must be able to provide environmental conditions that are conducive for its growth.

Jean’s very well-received talk at Bedok Public Library.

The talk lasted slightly more than an hour and afterwhich, we set off for Bedok Public Library where participants were invited to sit in a sharing session entitled ‘Basic Plant Propagation’ that was conducted by my colleague, Jean Ang.  In the talk, Jean demonstrated the various methods that one can use to make more plants. The methods she introduced include crown division, stem- and leaf-cuttings, propagation via stolons and seed sowing. It was a great talk as Jean ensured the session was straight-forward and presented bite-size information that was easily understood by novices.

I was invited to Thomson Reuters’ Xtra Louge at Science Park Drive on Friday afternoon to give a gardening talk to its employees. June 5 happens to be World Environment Day and the company took the opportunity to launch their Singapore Green Team. The Green Team is an employee-organised team, which actively looks for new and different ways to help the environment and to inform fellow employees about environmental issues.

 In my talk, I shared with the employees from Thomson Reuters on how they can bring greenery into their indoor working space. I touched on three most important environmental factors that need to be taken note of to ensure success in gardening indoors. The information that was shared is also applicable to growing plants back at home. As there are requests for my slides, I intend to turn the information into a feature article that will be put up on the Green Culture Singapore and this gardening blog soon.

Before I left, I took the opportunity to have a photograph taken with Ms Gill Murdoch, a Thomson Reuters correspondent who extended the invitation to me. It was nice catching up again to find out how each of us is doing at present. I first met her in 2007 in an interview to write a story on high-rise gardeners for Reuters (then).