On 20 Mar 2010, I delivered a gardening talk entitled ‘Environmentally-friendly Gardening’ for the first time at HortPark. In this sharing session, I shared with fellow gardeners a range of sustainable tips and products which can be used in the garden to help our plants grow better without harming the environment and wildlife around us.
Many of us want to rid our garden of bothersome pests which harm our plants. Do you know that many synthetic agri-chemicals can actually kill the beneficial wildlife, such as bees and butterflies, in the garden? These flying insects play an important role where they help to pollinate the flowers of our plants? This is especially important if you are growing fruit trees. The flowers of many fruit trees rely on bees to help bring pollen from one flower to another so that fruits can form.
I also introduced a range of environmentally-friendly pest control measures which included the use of petroleum oil (commonly called summer oil), neem oil and soap solution for control of small sucking insect infestations. Physical barriers that can be used to block out larger chewing insects were also discussed in the session and the audience got to see a DIY version which they can construct easily with readily available materials.
Recycling has a place in the garden. One can reuse drink cans as plant containers. Instead of peat pots, the green gardener can use paper egg trays to raise seedlings. Composting is a great way to recycle plant and kitchen waste and I took the opportunity to invite an landscape industry partner – GreenBack Pte Ltd – to my talk to share with my audience the value of composting and how one can perform worm composting at home using the Can-O-Worms kit.
