Our Final Day in Singapore

Hello LGP IE Blog regulars! As I post, it is 11:37 p.m. on Sunday evening on the beautiful, picturesque island of Penang, Malaysia. We arrived safely yesterday morning after departing Singapore very early. I’ll talk about our first day in Malaysia a bit later. For now, I want to give you some of the details of our last day in Singapore.

On Friday we spent some more time with professionals at the Singapore National Parks Board Headquarters. In the morning Mr. Yeo Meng Tong briefed us on the development of Singapore’s waterways and canals, public transportation corridors, and other publics land into a park connector network. The park connector network will increase the accessibility of Singapore’s public parks for its 4.5 million citizens, and will enable pedestrians and bikers to utilize many additional kilometers along beautifully landscaped pathways. We were all very impressed by another project contributing to Singapore’s comprehensive greening initiative.

Soon after our first meeting we discussed Singapore’s Community in Bloom initiative with Mr. Simon Longman. The project aims to support the development of community gardening in Singapore, and the total number of community gardens has increased to 250 since the program’s inception in 2004. Mr. Longman and six supporting staff provide information for the gardeners and also advocate their presence throughout the community.

Following a delicious buffet lunch, we heard about Singapore’s Garden City Fund, a fundraising effort that supports capital development projects within the National Parks Board. Next Mr. Yong Fook Chyi delivered a synopsis of the Center for Urban Greenery and Ecology’s (CUGE) efforts to develop and support private landscaping firms in Singapore. Mr. Yong discussed contracting procedures that provide incentives for capital investment and employee education. He also outlined several training programs offered by CUGE for landscape technician professional development.

We also spoke with Mr. Bian Tan, Southeast Asia program coodinator of Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). Mr. Tan explained BGCI’s role in connecting botanic gardens with plant conservation occurring around the world. His organization focuses on education, conservation, networking, and capacity building for their members and stakeholders.

The afternoon was capped with a tour of several Singapore community gardens given by Mr. Simon Longman. We visited a community that had planted the roadside area with masses of ornamental plants and another garden located within a heavily populated residential area. Everyone on the tour was equally impressed by the obvious gardening enthusiasm expressed by several groups of Singaporeans.
















Jackie Bergquist observes a Singapore community vegetable garden.





















Propagation bed at Singapore community vegetable garden.





















Fellows, Dr. Lyons, Yoko Arakawa, Simon Longman, and local Singaporeans in front of a community garden.


Barnabas, Bob, Dan, Jackie, Matt Q., Yoko