Category Archives: Gardening People in Singapore

The final two Community in Bloom Ambassador’s include two guys who are Mr Richmond Tan and Mr Sharif Ahmad Jusof! Richmond is the youngest of the crowd and happens to be one of my moderators of the Green Culture Singapore discussion forum. I am proud of him!

Mr Richmond Tan

Mr Richmond Tan, 24, is a moderator of the Green Culture Singapore discussion forum. Richmond shares his passion on carnivorous plants by conducting talks to members of the public at HortPark and initiated and produced two e-books on gardening which he distributes freely to interested people to help them in their gardening efforts. He also  oversees the gardening project at Tanglin Secondary School and conducted training for the school students and staff on aspects of gardening. He founded and maintains a gardening blog as a way to share his ideas on gardening: http://www.dreamandgrowit.wordpress.com.

Richmond has captured the attention of the young curious minds by introducing carnivorous plants through his outreach initiatives. His gardening blog is a platform for knowledge sharing about gardening and an avenue to broadcast his knowledge and skills in gardening. His continuous effort to promote gardening among young people will help create more appreciative future generation in greenery and gardening.

Richmond’s Quote: ‘You don’t need to be botanist to do gardening, just like you don’t need to be engineer in order to use a mobile phone.’

Mr Sharif Ahmad Jusof

Mr Sharif Ahmad Jusof, 50, is the leader of the gardening club at Al-Istiqamah Mosque. He has led a pioneering community gardening project in a mosque. His work has inspired many other organizations to successfully embark on their own community gardening projects. His generosity in sharing plants, and helping to decorate nearby community places help spread the ‘gotong royong’ spirit. By welcoming visitors to view the garden at Al-Istiqamah Mosque, he also promotes inter-religious understanding.

He has conducted gardening talks and workshops at HortPark to help guide members of the public and to inspire them into gardening and volunteering. He also volunteered his time and effort to facilitate the setting up of community gardens by conducting show & tell at the Al-Istiqamah Mosque garden, visiting their premises to offer advice and donated plants to various gardening groups including Admiralty West Prison, Mangala Vihara Buddhist Temple, As-Syakirin Mosque and St Gabriel Primary School.

Mr Sharif lent potted plants and helped decorate places such as Serangoon CC, Serangoon Zone 5 RC and En-Naeem Mosque for community events and took part in events to promote and share gardening tips with visitors, such as the Singapore Garden Festival and Launch of Clean & Green Singapore.

Mr Sharif’s Quote: ‘Gardening keeps me healthy. The sight of colourful blooming flowers and butterflies in the garden makes me very happy. I am glad to be able to share gardening tips with everyone who is interested’.

Here are the profiles of the next two Community in Bloom Ambassadors for 2009!

Mdm Helen Chan Jiat Mui

Mdm Helen Chan Jiat Mui, 58 is a  teacher and the chairperson of her school’s Environmental Committee (Telok Kurau Secondary School). She has conducted gardening workshops and show and tell for numerous eastern cluster school teachers and students, as well as to overseas visitors as part of creating awareness and facilitating them in their own gardening efforts. Helen also actively promoted gardening by taking part in several events such as Singapore Garden Festival and Launch of Clean & Green Singapore, and organized roadshows at other schools too. She also used gardening creatively as a mean to motivate students and to transform the school garden into an outdoor classroom, thereby increasing students’ interest in learning.

Helen made full use of her school garden to motivate and guide other schools in their own gardening projects. In addition to sharing ideas with students, she also trained teachers of other school clusters, who in turn taught their own students about gardening. The roadshows and exhibitions conducted in other schools helped explain the connection between gardening and environmental conservation to the young, thereby creating a positive image about gardening to them.

Helen’s quote – ’Plants are vital to our environment. Take care of them as you would a growing child. Love them and they will bring us joy.’

Mdm Kwoh Toh

Mdm Kwoh Toh, 81, is an active member of Jurong Central Zone ‘G’ RC community garden.  She has helped conduct tours and show & tell for members of the public, numerous start-up community gardening groups and foreign visitors at her community garden in Jurong East and spent many hours and days to help promote gardening and share tips and plants with visitors at numerous community and national events such as Singapore Garden Festival, SICEX 2009, to promote gardening and share gardening tips with visitors. Mdm Kwoh als helped set up and sustain several community gardening projects including; Jurong Primary School and Jurong Wellness Center.

Despite being an octogenarian, her tireless effort and positive attitude have inspired many others towards an active lifestyle. Her dedication and commitment to help promote gardening, evident at the roadshows and garden festivals that she took part, have motivated others in their own gardening efforts.

Mdm Kwoh’s quote – ‘The greatest joy of gardening is seeing the fruits of our labour and flower flourish’.

Let’s take this opportunity to know more about the new Community in Bloom Ambassadors! For a start, I shall share with all readers of this blog the detailed profiles of Mr Albert Quek and Mdm Gina Ong…

Mr Albert Quek

Mr Albert Quek, 46, is the founder and facilitator of Gardening club, Yokogawa Engineering Asia Pte Ltd).  Albert is very passionate about gardening and his DIY vertical garden. His willingness to share his ideas has benefited many community gardening groups and homeowners in their gardening projects. His efforts helped spread the gardening bug to other local and multi-national corporations to convince them that gardening is fun and worthwhile activity for staff.

He has helped facilitate community gardening projects through conducting gardening talks and sharing his experiences with start up gardening groups. He also cconducted garden visits and show & tell for staff of other MNC’s and foreign visitors, to the garden at Yokogawa premises. Albert also invented the DIY Vertical garden that inspired homeowners to garden in their limited apartment spaces. He willingly shared his innovative idea to members of the public through talks at HortPark and Libraries, setting up and maintaining a demonstration of his DIY vertical garden at HortPark, and taking part in the Singapore Garden Festival. He also contributed several articles to local and foreign media and publications to share his DIY vertical garden, including Straits Times, Lian He Zao Bao, Asia Pacific Times, Trubus Magazine (Indonesia), AFP, etc. He also helped the Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden Corporation in Hong Kong to set up its own DIY vertical garden.

Albert’s Quote: ‘Gardening is a real stress buster; it gives us a break from the rush of life!’

Mdm Gina Ong Liat Wah

Mdm Gina Ong Liat Wah, 50, is the leader of Laguna Park Condominium gardening club, as well as, founder & member of Marine Crescent Ville Resident’s Committee gardening club.

Gina has consistently promoted and created awareness through organising gardening roadshows at national events such as Singapore Garden Festival, Clean & Green Singapore Launch and GardenTech and grassroots events. She put in a lot of effort to ensure that her gardening booths are creatively done and attractive to visitors. This includes giving out free plants and seeds, and interacting with visitors. Gina spent time and effort to conduct garden tours and show & tell for members of the public, and foreign visitors to her gardens at Laguna Park Condo and Marine Crescent.

She has helped to galvanise and lead her neighbours at Marine Crescent Ville and Laguna Park Condominium to plant and sustain their own Award-winning gardening projects, allowing them to experience the joy of gardening. The two gardens are used as fine examples for others to model after. In addition, her creativity and sheer enthusiasm has helped win over many others to also embark on gardening.

Gina’s Quote: ‘The joy and satisfaction of being able to harvest fresh herbs and vegetables for our own cooking, and flowers for our table setting is simply fantastic! I wish for others to experience that too.’