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City

Buy Beeswax in Singapore

Looking to buy beeswax in Singapore for woodworking, making skincare products, beeswax wraps or other hand made projects? I have brought in a small quantity of natural/certified organic beeswax bars and pellets. To see the range, visit my Carousell store.

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City

String Garden: A parent-child kokedama workshop

Here’s an upcoming kokedama workshop, held in collaboration with Plain Vanilla Bakery as part of their Picnic Days summer-long series of events!

​​Introduce greenery to your living space with something space-saving and stylish that you and your child can make together. Kokedama, also known as “moss ball” or “string garden”, is a variant of bonsai cultivation, where plant roots are wrapped in soil and moss. In this parent-child session, learn how to make and care for your own kokedama. You will take home your own creation, along with a set of plant notes.

For children ages 8 and above; parent accompaniment required. $79 per parent & child pair.

Register here!

About Picnic Days

Picnic Days is a series of gatherings at the Plain Vanilla Flagship store at Tiong Bahru. Happening from 29 April to 8 October 2017, watch as the store is transformed into a grassy backyard complete with an indoor swing and hammock, and join us as we play host to an array of interactive activities, workshops and retail showcases. For a list of upcoming events, please see here.

The Tender Gardener advocates a gardening lifestyle by gathering and sharing stories, experiences, and advice. Through her blog and workshops, Olivia hopes to grow the gardening and urban farming community in Singapore, and encourage a love of plants and pollinators.

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City, Garden Stories

Garden Stories: Our Kampong Farm Rooftop Community Garden

On the top floor of a disused carpark space in Bedok, a group of 20 residents collectively grow, harvest, and cook for one another using produce from their rooftop community garden. Our Kampong Farm has taken a different approach to most community gardens, opting for the communal farm model – where everyone puts in their fair share of  work and enjoys the harvest together, rather than designating individual allotments. I felt inspired by what I saw, and could feel a sense of community spirit from this group of urban farmers.

This sprawling rooftop space is managed by 20 people, and currently not all of it is used for edible plants. Spanning around 15,000 square feet, only 10 per cent of the space is used to grow a wide variety of herbs, vegetables and fruits like caixin, kang kong, spinach, Japanese radish, lettuce, eggplant, tomato, pumpkin, bittergourd, watermelon, musk melon, okra, long beans, chilli, Thai basil, rosemary, perilla, pandan, aloe vera, oyster plant and papaya, among others. 

These urban farmers keep their expenses lean by taking what is normally considered waste from food vendors in the vicinity and using it as fertiliser. Given the number of plants here, store-bought fertiliser would not be cost-effective. In addition, they use a drip irrigation system for some of their plants, reducing water wastage and fertiliser run-off. Desmond Tan, who is part of the team, shared that okara, a by-product of making tofu, has proven to be a highly nutritious fertiliser, and dried banana peels have given their tomato plants a fantastic potassium boost. Food waste is certainly a resource that we don’t use enough of.

In this interview, Desmond tells us about the journey of Our Kampong Farm and lessons learnt along the way.

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City

Soil Class on 17 June!

I have a Soil Class in June, join me!

Soil Class (Basic Level) by The Tender Gardener

Relatively new to urban farming, and looking to demystify the subject of soil? Through this talk, learn soil basics and what your plants need to thrive instead of just survive. We will cover what you need to know to gain confidence in growing healthy edible plants, so join us!

Date & Time: 17 June 2017, 10:30am – 12:00pm
Venue: NONG at HortPark (33 Hyderabad Road (off Alexandra Rd), Beside the lawn
Cost: $39 per person, with limited spaces available, so booking is essential
RSVP: Sign up here!

What you will learn in this session:

– Different types of soil
– Physical needs of plants
– Nutrient requirements of plants
– Which soil to buy?
– Fertilisation
– Tips on growing seedlings
[To learn about soil amendments and mixing your own soil, please join us for the intermediate soil workshop on a later date]

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