Green oases bloom in the community

Garden strips flourish, even 'unofficial' ones
Grace Chua Straits Times 5 Apr 11;

IN THIS fast-paced, highly urbanised island, the call to cordon off a patch of land and coax things to grow can still be heard.

Sometimes, these gardens flourish without having been given official clearance to do so: They sit on state land, or on land belonging to Malaysia's Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) railway, the lease on which will revert to the Singapore Government from July 1.

On a sleepy weekday afternoon near Zhenghua Park in Bukit Panjang, for example, a handful of middle-aged and older men potter around in their vegetable patch, which sits on state land beneath an expressway. Traffic thunders overhead.

Sometimes, they just sit in the garden - among sweet potato leaves, banana trees, lady's fingers, herbs and flowers - for a good old yarn.

One of the gardeners, retiree Tan Boon Kwong, 71, said he is not interested in the activities organised for senior citizens in his estate. He prefers this patch of green, where he has been tending to plants for the last two to three years 'just for fun'.

He may have to give it up, as his garden patch is in an area earmarked for the development of sports and recreation facilities.

A similar story can be heard at a garden patch near the KTM railway tracks, across from the Ulu Pandan Canal. This one has been around for two decades.

Another retiree who gave his name only as Jeloni, 72, was weeding his tennis court-sized garden when The Straits Times visited.

He said he is the sort who cannot just sit around doing nothing, adding: 'I want morning exercise. Gardening is even better - I can have bananas or fruit. On Sundays, all my friends come.'

He is hankering for the old days when he used to live in a village off Sixth Avenue, but he and his fellow farmers are ever aware that the fate of their respective plots are up in the air.

The KTM land will soon go back to the Government, and the Ulu Pandan Canal near his garden is to be upgraded too, under national water agency PUB's Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters programme to develop the waterways.

The Singapore Land Authority (SLA), which oversees the use of state land, said members of the public who wish to cultivate state land have to seek its approval - and the answer may not necessarily be 'no, you cannot'.

Said an SLA spokesman via an e-mail message: 'The SLA has worked with a number of Citizens Consultative Committees (CCCs) on the use of state land that is not required for immediate development for community gardening/cultivation activities. The CCCs are issued temporary occupation licences for these activities, which promote community bonding.'

This is what has been allowed in a narrow garden strip under the tracks between the Paya Lebar and Eunos MRT stations, where residents from the housing blocks on Eunos Road 5 tend to a garden with the Housing Board's blessings.

The Housing Board owns the land beneath MRT tracks.

Today, more than 40 residents tend to plots along the kilometre-long, 4m-wide strip, where they plant lady's fingers, brinjals, bananas and other plants, and even check the site for mosquito breeding.

Their permit is renewed every year, with their residents' committee (RC) paying the rent of between $400 and $500.

Academics unequivocally agree that community gardening - whether 'official' or not - creates a sense of community and identity.

In 2005, the National Parks Board started its Community in Bloom gardening programme with town councils and RCs. Four hundred such gardens are blooming today.

National University of Singapore (NUS) geographer Harvey Neo pointed out, however, that with the Community in Bloom programme being coordinated through the town councils and RCs, people may get the impression that it is a politicised programme and stay away from it.

NUS sociologist Ho Kong Chong agreed, saying that an official hand in things is sometimes neither necessary nor desirable.

The bigger danger, he added, is 'if people just keep within the four walls of their home and not worry about common space outside'.