Singapore has once again stepped forward in motivating people towards the environment by launching two new community garden trails in Bukit Gombak-Hong Kah North and Teck Ghee on Tuesday, October 24.
With the launch of these two community garden trails, the total number of such trails will rise to five, according to Singapore's National Parks Board (NPB). The Teck-Ghee trail is a 6-km long stretch covering 12 community gardens. These gardens contain squashes, bitter gourd and exotic fruits. It will also feature tiny to huge musk melons.
The one in Bukit Gombak-Hong Kah North is also a 6-km stretch and contains nine community gardens. It contains bonsai, passion fruits, red button ginger, yellow cosmos flowers to name a few. It is closer in proximity to Tengah Nature Way. Exotic birds and butterflies throng in the garden since the garden grows various edibles along with a vast biodiversity.
The official website of National Parks contain guides for members who are willing to take a tour of the community gardens. The public can explore the routes, following the guide provided by the website. It also includes the opening hours of the garden, features of each of the community gardens, a map and the gardener's contact details.
The trails in Tampines and Fengshan were developed to spread awareness related to gardening among the residents.
The idea of implementing community gardens is to make people keen on gardening and instill in them the interest on the same. There are more than 1,300 community gardens in Singapore. The first trail was launched in Bukit Panjang in 2015. It contains more than 11 community gardens, presenting to the masses edibles and medicinal herbs. It contains a variety of fruits and vegetables which are grown by community gardeners to keep the kampong and gotong royong spirit intact in modern Singapore.
Community gardens are designed to attract wildlife and functions like a butterfly garden. These gardens act as nature reserves for wildlife attracting birds and butterflies. This is a great initiative to help a certain section of the wildlife migrate from one natural reserve to another, providing them with food and shelter, thus helping to maintain the ecological balance.
National Parks authority will be organising a guided tour, covering the newly launched trails, on November 11 and 12, in collaboration with Community Garden festival, which will be held from November 3 to November 5. The location, as per reports is at Hort Park, Alexandra Road.
