The Community Garden Edibles Competition is now underway for the largest and healthiest fruits and vegetables in Singapore. The competition will conclude on 5 and 6 September 2015 at the Community Gardening Festival at HortPark where the largest fruits and vegetables grown in Singapore will be on display. We caught up with some of our participants who had some eye-catching edibles ready for harvest!

All hands on deck as CIB Manager (South East) Hong Zhongzhi (left), CIB Ambassador Wendy Tan (centre) and Mdm Soh Mei Hua (right) from Sennett Estate NC prepare to harvest an 11 kg Winter Melon.Glenda (left) and Chaery (right) from Dover Park Hospice posing with their 0.7 m long beans.

How do they manage to grow such huge produce? As it turns out, there are no shortcuts, and no artificial methods – 100% organic is the way to grow! The key to growing huge edibles lie in the fundamentals. Here are some tips from our gardeners that you can try on your own fruits and vegetables:

Rina Teo (one of the garden leaders from Toh Yi Community Garden) turning over the compost to aerate it to expedite the process of decomposition as oxygen is required for the bacteria to break down the organic materials.

Composting
Nature’s best and free fertilisers can be made by decomposing organic matter. Mr Choo from Punggol Meridien Resident Committee (RC) uses compost made from recycled waste vegetables, fruit skins, and other horticultural waste such as fallen leaves. Manually tearing or cutting these materials will hasten the decomposition process and speed up the release of nutrients

Mdm Soh Mei Hua from Sennett Estate Neighbourhood Committee (NC) also introduced us to vermicomposting, an enhanced method of composting that uses earthworms to accelerate the breakdown, producing more compost within the same amount of time. As a soil conditioner, compost improves soil quality. Good soil is dark brown, loose in texture, and has many earthworms.

Mdm Yip from Toh Yi Community Garden (left) and her neighbour preparing a planting bed with eggshells to deter snails.

Pest Deterrence
To deter snails, Mdm Yip from Toh Yi Community Garden spreads a layer of crushed egg shells on the soil. Of course, the best way to get rid of snails would still be manually plucking them off your plants! The process may sound tedious but the satisfaction you get from seeing healthy green leaves on your plants is definitely worth the hard work! Once the vegetables have grown larger leaves, Mdm Yip chops up fresh cucumbers and scatters them on the vegetables; this keeps insects and worms from eating them. Harmful garden organisms can also be easily kept at bay by covering young vegetables in netting. If leaves are infested with pests, they should be cut to prevent further damage. Should all else fail, spray neem oil lightly on plants to impair the insects’ bodily functions, killing them.

Companion planting
The planting of different types of plants in close proximity also helps to repel pests and reduce the chances of diseases. Mdm Yip plants spring onions with her cucumbers, while the gardeners at Bukit Batok Zone 2 RC plant basil between eggplants. While we may find the smell of basil pleasant, some insects actually hate it!

Companion planting can also increase yields. Legumes like peanut and beans improve nitrogen content in the soil, making the soil even more fertile. Join these community gardeners as they showcase their larger-than-ordinary organic produce at the Community Garden Festival on 5 and 6 June at HortPark! You will be inspired by their enthusiasm, and with their tips in your hands, you are ready to start your own gardening journey! 

Text by Herrick Ong
Photos by Cheong Li Min, Lau Kai Ying and Natalie Cheong