Singapore Community Gardens

The Singapore National Parks Board has a wonderful gardening program described on their web site www.nparks.gov.sg . It provides support for 600 gardening clubs throughout the nation. I found one called Ayer Rajah Zone "1" RC Gardening Club on one of my excursions.

A neighborhood cat named Jake met me at the gate and showed me all around his big garden. He says it is his garden but he doesn't do any work. He says he has a staff of people that do all the hard labor.

The garden is huge and very well organized. It is fenced in and there are stepping stones laid out that separate the different fruits, vegetables and flowers being grown. Jake's staff does a wonderful job weeding and keeping the place well organized and clean.

An odd sight is the plastic bags tied loosely over some of the young fruit to keep bugs away.

 There is a potting shed to store equipment and to start off fragile young plantings. Jake likes to hang out there and sleep in the shade.

 I enjoyed my visit immensely but it was time to go. Before I left, Jake asked me which part of the

garden I like best. Since I am not a big fruit eater, I told him the flowers were my favorites.

Wholesale Center, Pasir Panjang, Singapore

The double decker bus I rode on a few days ago took me along the beautiful West Coast area of Singapore. There is a long, narrow park that meanders along the road on one side and Jurong Channel on the other. I jumped off in front of a collection of huge warehouses.

 As I walked towards the buildings I realized these warehouses were not just places to store old dirty stuff. The warehouses collectively are known as the Pasir Panjang Wholesale Center. As I approached the closest building I was met by a nervous Jack Russell terrier named Tan.

Tan was very hyper but offered to give me a quick tour through the buildings. There are four buildings and each are temporary storage for food stuffs. The first one stores refrigerated products. The second one holds fruits. The next one has vegetables and the last one maintains dry goods like rice, nuts, grains, dried fruit and dried fish.

 

As we walked around the buildings I found out why Tan was so nervous. We turned around a corner near a stack of crates of oranges and there stood the ugliest, meanest looking dog I had ever seen. Tan told me his name was Adolf, who thinks he owns the place. I am pretty feisty, but I did not want to deal with Adolf. Tan and I wisely scooted down an isle full of pineapples to avoid the "Demon Dog from Hell."

The other reason Tan was so hyper was all the forklift traffic. The drivers have a lot of work to do loading and unloading trucks. They start work at midnight, emptying trucks that are filled with product that is locally grown, as well as product flown into Singapore from all over the world. It is neatly stacked and then loaded back onto trucks bound for grocery stores and restaurants all over the island. The forklift operators don't have time to worry about looking out for silly dogs that might be in the way.



After the trucks all leave, non business people can purchase any goods not required by the retailers. What a great way to obtain really fresh produce right off the loading dock!          

It was time to run. I thanked Tan for the tour and as I left the Wholesale Center, I made sure to avoid crossing Adolph's path.