Browsing Category

City

Singapore Gardening Society visit to Mr Tan Wee Lee & Mrs Rosalind Tan’s garden

Over the weekend, I attended the Singapore Gardening Society (SGS)’s February meet up, I try my best to make it when I’m in town. This time, we visited Mr Tan Wee Lee and Mrs Rosalind Tan garden, which has previously received a Community in Bloom award. They were wonderful hosts, sharing knowledge about their garden, and ensuring society members were well fed.

All visitors were greeted by this majestic 50-year old Elephant Ear Fig Tree, abundant with fruit. Mrs Tan said that she cooks the figs with chicken soup, and that making tea from the leaves of this species is supposedly good for diabetes. I heard Mr Tan saying that in order to have a tree like that, one needs to shape it as such. He’s a bonsai enthusiast, as you will see later on.

Even though it was an unbearably hot day, their front garden is well shaded by this tree, and well cooled by their pond. The difference in temperature was remarkable, and made it a very comfortable experience.

March 4, 2015 by Olivia

City, Garden Stories

Garden Stories: Pavilion Edible Garden

PEG My friend, Pui Cuifen, has been working on Pavilion Edible Garden in her neighbourhood for over a year now. It’s a community garden which she had initiated in 2013, and it has really taken shape since, with active participation from neighbours, and voluntary help from permaculture designer, Debbie Han, and landscaping organisation, The Nature Company.

Having visited their community garden blog on occasion, and seeing updates from Cuifen’s Facebook page, I could tell it was a real labour of love and an inclusive space for residents and members of the public. Cuifen and neighbours, Dennis and Lydia kindly gave me a tour of the community space, which is nestled in a private estate in Bukit Batok. Mr Teo (the gentleman on the right), was diligently tending to plants all afternoon and is an active contributor to the community garden.

I’m a huge supporter of community gardens not just because I love gardening, but I feel that creating one is a great step towards building resilience in the neighbourhood. While Pavilion Edible Garden is still relatively young, they are off to a great start. They have a wonderful set up and variety of plants, which include fruits, vegetables and butterfly attracting plants, and they are quickly gaining traction with the community, with more neighbours taking an interest in the garden.

Featuring permaculture principles, the garden has a banana circle, herb spiral, and will soon have a 3 sisters vegetable bed. It also features wicking beds, and community members create their own compost where possible, although they started off with compost donated by The Nature Company. There is a diverse range of plants which include moringa, winter melon, collard greens, beans, yam, sweet potatoes, okra, chilli, bananas, papayas, and lots of herbs.

February 27, 2015 by Olivia

City

Upcoming workshop: Grow Your Own Natural Remedies Workshop

Here’s another workshop that I’m excited to announce. This is a collaboration with my friend Suekay, who runs DIY Culture (among other things) – a DIY supplies store for those who like making their own skincare products, candles, and gifts for others. More details below.

Learn to grow and use herbs and flowers to gently relieve minor skin ailments and body discomfort in this upcoming Grow Your Own Natural Remedies Workshop.

Organised by The Tender Gardener and DIY Culture, this 90-minute workshop includes a presentation on the properties and uses of various herbs and beneficial plants, as well as recipe demonstrations on making natural remedies. On the day, participants get to take home seeds of lemon balm, thyme, calendula, dandelion, and chamomile, a self watering pot, seed raising mix, notes, and even a skin soothing salve prepared during the session itself.

Reservation is required at $89 per person, seats are limited, so book your spot here!

Big thanks to our venue sponsor – Nong by Edible Garden City.

January 17, 2015 by Olivia

City

Announcing new workshops for January!

I’m really pleased to announce these two upcoming workshops on 31 January. The first is An Edible Flowers Workshop, which I first held in late November, looking at growing attractive and edible flowers, while the second is Flowers for the table – A gardening workshop, which highlights pretty and delicate cottage garden flowers that will grow in our climate.

An Edible Flowers Workshop serves as a guide to growing plants like Nasturtium, Roselle, Sunbird Sunflowers, Shungiku (Garland Chrysanthemum) and Calendula, for use in salads, tea and even as natural remedies.

Other than learning how to grow these flowers, I will cover its nutritional benefits, and also touch upon how they can be used for cooking and suggest some medicinal purposes.

As part of this 1-hour workshop, you will receive some seeds to get you started, a bag of Nong seed raising mix and an attractive self-watering pot.

Reservation is required at S$55 a head. Register here!

Flowers for the table – a gardening workshop is focused on growing cottage garden flowers which can then be harvested for display at home.

The flowers featured for this session include different kinds of Cosmos and Marigolds, Zinna, Teddy Bear Sunflowers, and Billy Buttons.

As part of this 1-hour workshop, you will receive some seeds to get you started, a bag of Nong seed raising mix and an attractive self-watering pot.

Reservation is required at S$65 per person. Register here!

Big thanks to Nong by Edible Garden City for sponsoring this venue.

February brings another workshop – Grow Your Own Natural Remedies Workshop, look out for it, and please join us!

January 9, 2015 by Olivia

Older Posts

Newer Posts