Little One @ Gardener's Day Out

This was our first trip to Gardener's Day Out.  There were quite a number of things going on that day. Mainly Hort Clinic where you can ask questions regarding plant care. There were plant sales (mainly from the Pasir Panjang Nursery) and gardening talk too. Definitely a great event for gardeners!

I have no green fingers. Practically every plant I tried to grow died in my hands, so it took me quite a while to decide to attend the event. We attended mainly because of the Edible Garden Tour and Harvesting. Living in the city meant that most children do not get a chance to plant and harvest vegetables. The first time I get to know that we can actually harvest from the garden was during our last Hort Park and Pasir Panjang tour. We wrote in to Hort Park to register. NPARKS_HortPark@nparks.gov.sg The programme is about an hour long. The cost of the programme is $3/ parent child pair. The only mode of payment is by NETS at the Visitor Services Centre.

Plants on sale

Hort Clinic

There were free plants (2 leaves and a flower stalk ) and free fertilizer  given out on that day itself! Little One likes the flowers so we got some.

There were workshops and storytelling on that day too. Guided tours were available too.

Edible Garden Tour and Harvesting

Below is a photo essay of the harvesting part of the programme. We were brought to the Edible Garden and were shown which plants could be harvested. The children were quite excited to touch and harvest the plants. There were Spinach, Cai Xin, Radish, Long Bean, Basils, Corn, Brinjal , Lemongrass, Pandan leaves and Ladyfinger. We didn't harvest a lot as we tend to eat out during weekend and hate to put the food we harvested to a waste. Hence, we harvested what we thought could last us through Monday. From the programme, I also learnt how to keep the food fresher from one of the volunteers.

Both Little One and I enjoyed our events. We will definitely be back.

Pulling the radish!

Various Leafy plants

Left: Harvesting Corn
Right: These Garden shears are pretty sharp. Little One nearly snapped my fingers with it in her excitement!

Her bagful of vegetables

Cooking simply with the harvested goods. My creation: Soupy Udon with lemongrass, basil and Cai Xin with a dash of sesame oil for flavour. Little One likes it.

Linking with~

Little One @ Pasir Panjang Nursery and Hort Park Tour

Did you know some of the roads/places  in Singapore are named after trees?  Did you know all the trees found on roads and parks actually comes from the one and only NParks nursery in Singapore? What to do if you have a space constraint to grow plants in Singapore? Why not visit the Hort Park for ideas? 

"Set up in the 1970s, the Pasir Panjang Nursery supplies close to 200,000 plants a year to green up Singapore’s roads and parks. Majority of the plants provided by the nursery are native to Singapore and not easily available in private nurseries. It is NParks’ major nursery and houses over 3,000 species of trees, palms, shrubs, groundcover, herbs, fruit trees and aquatic plants. Seeds, cuttings and saplings of native plants are collected weekly from across Singapore, including the forests. These are grown at the nursery until they are ready to be planted islandwide. The nursery also sources plants from the region such as Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to increase the variety of ornamental plants used in NParks’ planting programmes.

HortPark is a one-stop gardening resource centre that brings together gardening-related, recreational, educational, research and retail activities under one big canopy in a park setting. Popular with gardening enthusiasts, families, and community groups who wish to learn more about gardening or share tips with like-minded enthusiasts, HortPark is also frequently visited by visitors who enjoy taking nature walks along the Southern Ridges."

                                                                                                                            ~NParks

Recently, we signed up for a tour at SGfuture: Site Visit to Pasir Panjang Nursery and HortPark. This time I signed my hubby up as he had not been to the nursery (not open to public) before. 

The tour started from Hort Park and ends in Pasir Panjang Nursery. I must admit I had not been to Hort Park for almost 1 year! Quite a couple of things had changed. One of which is Community in Bloom Gardens which are actually 5 meaningful mini gardens/themes to commemorate SG 50. They are "Blk 50", "Play Mosaic", "Balik Kampung", "Talk Bird, Sing Song" and "2065". I particularly like Blk 50 and Balik Kampung. They contains a number of nostalgic items. We were also introduced to the various techniques on how Hort Park used various innovative ways to maintain their gardens. Examples are vertical gardening and Aquaponic garden. Although I have seen vertical gardens in various part of Singapore but I must admit, I do not know how these gardens were maintain. It was definitely an eye opener!

A pity the dragon head is not a replica of the dragon playground in Toa Payoh.

Blk 50 with its antique looking window grilles. There are some nostalgic furniture around too! 

Aquaponics Garden is a small scale aquaponic system in which vegetables and food fish are grown together whereby both organisms benefits mutually.

Aquaponics Garden

Sandpit in HortPark

Proceeding next to Pasir Panjang Nursery.
As mentioned earlier, many of the trees in our local parks, roadsides and even Istana were nurtured here before planted islandwide. One of the roles of the nursery is to propagate native plants. Some of these species are coming close to extinct on our island. Our group consists of many plant lovers who love to grow their own herbs and plants at home.They asked lots of questions on how to grow certain vegetables. The guides were patient to share with us their knowledge. We were also told how certain places got its name, such as Kranji, Sembawang and Kampong Glam.

Golden Papaya

Fruit of Signature Tree - ants are feeding on the seeds
This tree is also known as Signature tree because autographs can be scratched onto the stout, long-lasting leaves.

In case you wonder why there are plants in the canal : aquatic plants, including water lilies, help to purify water that runs through it. 

Purple Capsicum?

Brinjal

Purple chilli

Various salvage plants

Little One is particularly interested in the Asam Tree, Garcinia Atroviridis. Ever since she stepped in the nursery, she had been asking for it. The reason being she loves to eat the young leaves of this tree. She was introduced to this plant almost 1.5 years ago when she last visited and she still can remember how it tasted like. Only the orange young leaves can be eaten raw and it cannot be eaten with an empty stomach.

Garcinia Atroviridis

Although this trip to the nursery was shorter than the last, we still learnt quite a lot from the trip. Hopefully, next time NParks will open more slots for the public to go.

A different birthday at Balik Kampung

Instead of dining in a restaurant to celebrate my birthday, this year, I decided to do it slightly differently. A more down to earth approach. Remember the group, Ground-Up Initiative (GUI) that I mentioned previously on my blog on Bottle Tree Park and that one of the programmes I intended to attend in June? This is it!

"Ground Up Initative is a place to connect with the earth. We are a community of volunteers - of Thinkers, Warriors and Farmers. Thinker doesn't mean book smart - it means holistic and compassionate thinking - looking at the whole. By warrior I mean people who are hands on and have mental resilience - they are adaptable and have inner strength. And to farm is to connect with the land. It grounds you. You understand in a deep sense that what you plant, you will reap. 

GUI is a place where all are invited to come and learn what true kampung spirit really is. It is a place to connect and heal. You come here to learn to connect with yourself then to those around you. People who come here find comfort, peace and clarity. They find purpose and meaning. We have people of all ages and all walks of life. They do not live here but come on weekends to participate in the activates: farming, cooking, carpentry. Some just come to take their shoes off and walk in the stream. It's a kind of leadership training - life training. You learn to care. You learn what is important to you and how to build towards it, to speak up for it. "

- Kampung Chief Tay Lai Hock 

I signed my whole family up for a programme known as Balik Kampung in June. We were actually late on that day. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! The programme starts at 9am and ends at 1 or 2 pm. We saw the gang proceeded with morning exercise just outside SL Kampung. Then we were to find someone new and introduce ourselves to each other. I realised many are volunteers. Then we were divided into groups. Cooking, planting or woodwork. We got to choose what we wanted to do. Children were being asked to play kampung games as it was raining outside. Otherwise, they would be ask to rack fallen leaves- important nutrients for growing plants. Very organic right? They do not use chemicals.

A different sort of birthday celebration with Mother Earth , I decided to get my hands dirty and did some planting...

and at the same time, bring Little One closer to Mother Nature. The kids here had fun filling up the bags with soil. Some of the kids decided to help us out. Little One, too , tried to fill up bags of soil for planting. She did a few, then started to play with the soil.

The volunteer with the children. GUI is into recycling, of course!

I think the place looks really nice. I particularly like this lamp. I wonder whether they make that themselves.

Chalk on wooden blocks. Who would have thought of that? You could also used markers though.

The rickshaw that looked so antique

Wow! Trishaw! I doubt I have seen one this colourful!

A spider spotted in the nursery

After a morning of hard work, we had lunch made by the chefs. The cleaning process is rather new to me. All of us are used to cleaning with detergent. But the process we are going to be introduced is quite unheard of. First you get to clean by rubbing coconut husk on the used plates, the used coconut husk will be used as a compost for plants. Then wash with a plant based powder which was mixed in water. After that, raise in a couple of basins of clean water.

The session ends by listening to a story shared by a volunteer of GUI. Then, we were to do a sharing session by splitting into groups and discussing about what we have learnt from the story and what have we learnt for this trip.

________________________

I love being near to nature. I love learning about how to make our life more sustainable. I am glad I learnt a few tips on how to plant. Most importantly, I learnt we can actually clean up our utensils in a more eco-friendly way. Wait till I get my hands on that powder, I shall share on my facebook page.

GUI is an interesting group. They have been appearing in libraries programmes and even the recent Singapore Heritage Festival.  Thank you GUI for making my birthday so memorable, I do hope to see you again!

This post is part of the "Care for the Earth" series

• Care for the Earth (introduction)
• Our Green Library and Recommended Green Books. 
• Muse
• Making a Pinhole Camera (Craft)
• DIY card holder (Craft)
• "Lungs of the World" in Singapore
• Making a Yoyo Button Hair Accessory (Craft)
• A different birthday- a more down-to-Earth approach
• Celebrating Earth Day