NParks launches inaugural Community Garden Festival

Overwhelming response for first Community Garden Edibles Competition

6 September 2015 – The National Parks Board (NParks) today launched at HortPark the inaugural Community Garden Festival, which aims to bring community gardeners together to celebrate and share their passion and knowledge of plants and gardening. The Festival is also one of NParks’ milestone celebrations commemorating SG50.

Fun activities for all at Community Garden Festival

The Community Garden Festival will be held over two weekends at HortPark – 5 to 6 September 2015 and 12 to 13 September 2015 – to engage the gardening community and members of public who are passionate about growing their own greens. The Community Garden Festival will be an annual event held at HortPark and during the Singapore Garden Festival.

A series of fun activities for gardening enthusiasts and members of the public of all ages has been lined up for the inaugural Festival. The public can visit the Gardeners’ Market where community gardeners, hobbyists and local start-ups gather together to set up stalls and sell their garden produce and garden wares. Plants grown in Pasir Panjang Nursery, which are otherwise not commercially available, will be on sale. Other fringe activities include gardening-related product demonstrations, gardening talks and workshops, and a food bazaar.

In addition, NParks will organise guided tours of HortPark and a free outdoor concert on the first weekend of the Festival (5 and 6 September). During the second weekend (12 and 13 September), there will be exclusive tours for the public to catch a glimpse of the plants grown in Pasir Panjang Nursery and an outdoor screening of a family-oriented movie.

Overwhelming response for first Community Garden Edibles Competition

The inaugural Community Garden Edibles Competition provides a platform for gardeners to showcase their gardening talents and to recognise them for their growing skills. Open to all amateur gardeners, the competition aims to cultivate an interest among Singaporeans to grow fruits and vegetables in their homes and neighbourhood community gardens and to improve their knowledge on food sources.

The competition has received overwhelming response from gardeners across Singapore and over 900 individuals and groups have registered to participate. It culminated with the judging and weigh-in at the Community Garden Festival today.

Participants submitted entries from 12 vegetable and fruit categories including chilli (cayene type), lady’s finger, brinjal, bitter gourd, cucumber, long bean, winter melon, lettuce, pumpkin, tomato, watermelon and papaya. The entries for the competition were assessed on their size, condition and colour. The top 10 entrants (individuals and groups) with the best fruits or vegetables won attractive cash prizes of up to $800. The top 10 entries in each category will be showcased at the Festival. Members of the public can also join in the fun by guessing the weight of these vegetables and fruits and stand to win vouchers.

SG50 Community in Bloom Gardens

At the Festival, the public will have the opportunity to view the five SG50 Community in Bloom Gardens, which were created to celebrate our nation’s 50^th birthday. The five gardens are “Balik Kampung!” by North West District community gardeners, “Blk 50 Singapore” by Central Singapore District community gardeners, “Play Mosaic” by South East District community gardeners, “Talk Bird, Sing Song” by South West District community gardeners and “2065” by North East District community gardeners. “2065” won the Best Community in Bloom Show Garden award for showcasing the strongest horticultural merit and landscape design attributes.

Co-created with 50 community gardening groups, the gardens are the embodiment of a shared love for gardening which underpins the spirit of NParks’ Community in Bloom programme. More than 250 community gardeners from Residents' Committee and Neighbourhood Committee groups, schools, corporations, religious organisations and volunteer welfare organisations came together to develop these commemorative Community in Bloom gardens.

Streets of Singapore Walk

Visitors can also visit the new Streets of Singapore Walk at the Festival. The tree-lined stretch will showcase 15 different species of trees that are associated with road names such as Katong and Tampines. It will enable Singaporeans to learn more about trees along our streetscape and relate them to familiar road names.

Launch of third edition of 1001 Garden Plants in Singapore

At the event, NParks also launched the third edition of one of the bestselling gardening books in Singapore titled 1001 Garden Plants in Singapore. NParks first published the book in 2003 as a pictorial reference guide for gardening enthusiasts, horticulturists, landscape students and professionals in related fields. Now into its third edition, the 824-page fully-illustrated book features about 2,000 species of plants that can be found in our public green spaces, an additional 100 plants have been included in this new edition, as well as a wide variety of plants that can be cultivated in our own homes. The book aims to encourage readers to develop a love for plants in Singapore and appreciation for our green heritage.

With a simple, easy to use and appealing format, the new edition is enhanced with high quality images that bring out the essential characteristics of different species, enabling users to better identify plants. The book features many new varieties of plants that have recently become popular in the horticultural trade such as Wax Flowers (Hoya species), succulents such as the Lifebuoy Plants (Huernia species) and the Double 8 Fortune Plant (Euphorbia geroldii), edibles such as the GAC fruit vine (Momordica cochinchinensis) and a variety of different Basil cultivars, as well as native shrubs and trees from the Gardenia and Mangosteen families. The layout of the new edition has been improved by categorising plants according to their growth habits for scientific accuracy, and to make it easier for gardening enthusiasts to relate to. In this edition, additional icons have been included to help readers meet the requirements for healthy plant growth. For instance, a “cool temperature” icon has been applied to plants that can only be grown in the comfort of air-conditioned offices but not outdoors in the tropical heat. The book also features our rich natural heritage and includes a number of native plant species that NParks has actively conserved, propagated and reintroduced into our urban plantings as a part of its ex-situ conservation strategy.

Limited copies of the book will be sold at a special launch price of $22.30 at the Gardeners’ Market on 5 and 6 September during the Community Garden Festival It will be available at the Gardens Shops at the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 8 September 2015 and will retail at $27.90 (inclusive of GST). The book will also be available at major bookstores from 23 September 2015.

NParks Volunteers Appreciation Ceremony

Today, NParks also recognised the dedication of 20 long-serving volunteers at its annual Volunteers’ Appreciation Ceremony. The volunteers were presented with their long-service awards at a ceremony at HortPark to acknowledge their contributions to and volunteerism at NParks for at least 10 years.