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pest control

City, Garden Stories

Garden Stories: Bhavani Prakash, the Mindful Gardener

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A few weekends ago, I paid a visit to my dear friend, Bhavani Prakash, who lives in the West Coast, and I was looking forward to seeing her inspiring rooftop and balcony gardens again. Bhavani hosted Ginny Giovanni (pictured above) and I for tea that rainy afternoon, and gave us an unforgettable experience of not just lovely treats, but also a tour of her garden spaces, and the condominium’s community garden, which she helped initiate.

I met Bhavani years ago through work in the sustainability field, where she is very active in creating and inspiring change. She is a strong advocate for green living, connecting to nature, and mindfulness, she raises awareness of these meaningful topics at corporate and individual levels through speaking at conferences, and by providing coaching and training. Bhavani is well known for her environmental advocacy website, Eco WALK the Talk, and sustainability and thought leadership platform Green Collar Asia. More recently, she has been conducting Mindfulness at Work training with The Potential Project. As busy as she is, she manages to be a hands-on, nurturing mother and gardener, and does well at both.

She has been able to grow a variety of fruit, herbs, vegetables and ornamentals on her balconies, including sugarcane, bananas, sweet potatoes, peanuts, winged beans, purple beans, mustard greens, watermelon, custard apple, mulberry, moringa trees, frangipanni, among others. Bhavani also makes her own compost which she uses for her plants.

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City

Who to call when you find bees in your home in Singapore

P1170092 copyMost certainly not pest control! We have a shrinking population of native bees in Singapore and we need to protect them. While they might seem scary in a big swarm, don’t let it intimidate you and your family members, because they will not sting anyone unless they feel threatened. They are important pollinators in Singapore and it breaks my heart each time I hear about pest control companies killing bees.

There is a humane, constructive, and gratifying solution to this. Get in touch with Thomas Lim from Edible Gardens at thomas@ediblegardencity.com or 9632 8448, he’s the beekeeper extraordinaire at edible landscaping consultancy, Edible Gardens. He is able to re-home bees to apiaries like the one I am holding below.

Unfortunately for me, termites took over my apiary, and a pest control company had to treat the wood for me (my area has historically been termite territory, Rentokil’s van is on my street very often, and I wonder why they don’t co-ordinate home visits so they can visit the whole street on the same day). As bees are very fussy when it comes to sanitation, it’s unlikely for them to move in to spaces which have been inhabited by other insects, they also stay away from chemicals.

There’s a lot to learn about bees and I hope to try some of Edible Gardens’ city honey soon. I’ve heard from the folks at Edible Gardens that the bees are not as productive as bees in colder climates because they don’t have to store food for winter. More on this topic soon!

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