Speech by MOS Desmond Lee at the Launch of the Community Garden Edibles Competition at Gardeners' Day Out

Apr 4, 2015

Good morning. Over the past 50 years, we witnessed how Singapore first transformed into a Garden City and now, a City in a Garden. Many people have contributed to this vision, with one of the key initiatives being the Community in Bloom programme. In just 11 years, more than 850 gardens have blossomed across our little island through the passion and dedication of some 3,000 active volunteers. Quite a number of you here in this room have made major contributions to this and I thank you for it. This is a very impressive achievement and it shows how strongly our community supports this green movement.

Community Garden Edibles Competition
Last year, Minister Khaw Boon Wan had the pleasure of visiting several community gardens, many of which had plots growing fruits and vegetables. He recognised the social and community bonding that growing edibles harnessed, and seeded the idea of organising a friendly competition on edibles to NParks. Today, I am delighted to be here to launch the Community Garden Edibles Competition at HortPark.

Like Minister Khaw, I too have had the pleasure of visiting several community gardens, including several in Jurong where I serve. In those visits, I met many gardeners like you who were very passionate about their hobby. A number of them were particularly interested in growing their own edibles. They told me that there is just something so satisfying about growing your own food, harvesting it straight from garden to preparing it in the kitchen, or sharing the fruits of your labour with family, friends and neighbours, with your community.

It must be very satisfying that from time to time you get a crop of long beans, which turns out to be exceptionally long, or a papaya, which is particularly large, juicy and sweet. I am told it is not just a matter of luck. It takes special care and skill to grow such “competition-worthy” edibles. With this in mind, the Community Garden Edibles Competition will showcase your talents as gardeners and recognise your growing skills. Like the gardeners, I am very excited to see what the final entries will be like in September. 

The competition will boast a number of categories for gardeners to participate in, ranging from long edibles such as cucumbers and lady’s fingers, to heavyweights like winter melons and watermelons. Gardeners will have the option of using seeds specially sourced by NParks, or you can also use seeds from your own sources.

With the competition, we hope to cultivate an interest among Singaporeans to grow edibles in their homes and community gardens. How many of us grew up when Singapore was already a Garden City, can claim to know how to grow our own food? Perhaps not too many, especially the younger generation. To this end, NParks will be organising a series of special talks and workshops on growing vegetables and fruits at Gardeners’ Day Out events like today, and at Community Clubs, where more can learn about the art and science of growing edibles.

Community Garden Festival
I am also happy to announce that selected entries from the Community Garden Edibles Competition will be showcased at the inaugural Community Garden Festival that will be held over two weekends on 5-6 and 12-13 September at HortPark. This Festival is one of several NParks’ milestone celebrations this year to commemorate SG50, and is an event to appreciate and recognise our community gardeners for their efforts in helping to green Singapore and make it very delicious.

Besides the Edibles competition, there will be many other events to look forward to at the Festival. To highlight a few examples, there will be the launch of the SG50 Community in Bloom Gardens that 50 community gardening groups will co-create with NParks. There will be a Gardeners’ Market where gardeners will sell a variety of produce and a host of evening performances under the stars. I am also pleased to say that the Festival, together with the Edibles competition, will be an annual event, and will alternate between HortPark and the biennial Singapore Garden Festival.

One feature I’m particularly looking forward to at the Festival is the upcoming “Streets of Singapore” stretch, where I will be planting a Keranji tree later today. This interesting new addition to HortPark will be unveiled at the Community Garden Festival in September. Through the showcase, visitors can learn about the trees along our streetscape and relate them to familiar names, such as the roads and towns that were named after these trees. For example, did you know that Sembawang town was named after the Sembawang tree? Yes, there really is a tree called the Sembawang tree, just as there are trees called the Keranji tree and Tempines tree, which Kranji and Tampines towns were named after. The Sembawang tree is especially special, because Sembawang Park is the only park managed by NParks where the Sembawang tree can be found. So go and look for it. It is fascinating to know how trees planted so many decades ago shape a big part of our culture and heritage today and it is knowledge worth sharing with our children and our grandchildren.

Naming of towns and streets are examples of how trees connect us to places where we live. This sense of attachment reminds us of Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy of transforming Singapore into a first world oasis of greenery. Today, our streetscape continues to be dominated with beautiful trees, thanks to the vision and commitment of Mr Lee who made all of this possible. He was the one who first envisaged Singapore as a Garden City, recognising that greenery would soften the harshness of urbanisation and improve the quality of life. The first tree he planted back in 1963 – when some of us were not even born - set us on the way and we have not looked back since. We now have some 3 million trees in our streetscapes, parks and residential areas today. In his words, “We have built. We have progressed. But there is no hallmark of success more distinctive and more meaningful than achieving our position as the cleanest and greenest city in South Asia.” To him, our founding Prime Minister and also our Chief Gardener, we owe much of everything. He has nothing less than our deepest appreciation and heartfelt gratitude.

Conclusion
Through events such as this, we hope to share more information about our trees and their links to our built environment, while equipping the community with practical gardening skills that you can deploy in your homes, along your corridors, and at your community gardens. This will translate to a deeper appreciation of our natural heritage, and encourage more Singaporeans to play a part in cultivating new green areas and keeping our green legacy going. Moving forward, we also plan to galvanise the community to be further involved in our City in a Garden vision, such as the development of the CIB “show gardens” at the upcoming Jurong Lake Gardens. We also hope that through such gardening activities, we will continue to build strong bonds in our community - between friends, between neighbours and former strangers - enjoying our harvests together.

I wish you an enjoyable time at Gardeners’ Day Out.