This community gardener doesn’t just grow fruits and flowers, he nurtures kampung spirit

Each cluster typically brings together a number of gardening groups, anywhere from five to 12 depending on how districts are organised each year. The groups involved would first meet up, visit and take stock of each other’s gardens and get to know each other’s strengths before brainstorming ideas for the show garden.

In Mr Yeap’s experience, most gardeners in the community are very open to connecting with each other, particularly when it comes to pooling resources. 

“They will share their knowledge, share what they know, and they will even share their harvest.”

Months go into propagating plants, testing display prototypes and refining plant arrangements, before the teams are given about a week to assemble the final show garden.

For example, for this year’s cup, Mr Yeap’s team chose the futuristic theme Quantum Fair 3026. Their garden included a 1.5m-wide flying saucer sculpture that held about 600 succulents. The team tried three different variations of the design before finding one that worked best.

“Then we spent three full days at the Singapore Garden Festival, about four or five people, just doing that (assembling the succulents).”

This year, each district’s team comprised 12 community gardens. And with around 10 volunteers per garden, he estimated about 100 participants were involved in the district’s showcase.