NParks Archives - The Tender Gardener

City

Take a look inside Singapore’s only national nursery

On Saturday, NParks (National Parks Board) opened its Pasir Panjang Nursery to the public for the first time, and I went down first thing in the morning with mom in-tow to view their 12 hectare growing space. I loved what I saw.

I especially love its vast expanse of space and plant life, including flowers, vegetables, fruits, ornamentals, trees, and aquatic plants. There were also bees and other pollinating insects flitting about from flower to flower.

The tour seemed to go by quickly, even though it went for an hour and a half. The guide shared lots of interesting details about different plants, and the session was highly interactive, where we got to touch and smell various plants and flowers.

He shared that aquatic plants, including water lilies, sit in this storm water surge canal pictured below, and helps purify water that runs through it. In times of heavy rain, lots of sediment gets washed into the canal.

November 17, 2014 by Olivia

City

Gardener’s Day Out at Hort Park

Two weekends ago, I attended the quarterly Gardeners’ Day Out organised by NParks, and because I’d missed the last one, I made it a point to wake up very early to make it to Hort Park for this session. I generally like my sleep ins, especially on weekends. Well, it certainly did not disappoint! I did wish I had bought more plants though!

In general, I found that plants, soil, manure and some products to be rather affordable. Gardening can become an expensive hobby once you add growing systems, composting system, seeds, pots, seaweed extract and/or fish emulsion to the equation. Heirloom and organic seeds are always more pricey. The Seeds Master had a really lovely display, and each packet of seeds was going for $6, or 5 packs for $25. I ended up buying three different packs of flower seeds, I’m obsessed with flowers at the moment. There was a bit of a lucky dip for customers, and I picked a pack of Dwarf French Bean seeds.

There was a good range of plants on sale – succulents, including cacti, orchids, pitcher plants, air plants, florals, herbs and even eggplants and mulberry. Young seedlings were also available. There were also interesting talks and workshops, but I didn’t attend any.

September 17, 2014 by Olivia