Despite living in high-rise buildings, green-fingered Singaporeans remain eager to find the space for urban gardening.
Good news for all those who dream of reaping their own harvest. On Saturday (9 Oct), the National Parks Board (NParks) announced that they will be giving out 400,000 seed packets of edible plants.
With these, Singaporeans can grow their favourite vegetables like kangkong and kai lan right from their homes.
Last year, NParks launched the Gardening with Edibles programme to encourage residents to garden at home or in community gardens.
As part of the initiative, this year, NParks will once again be distributing free seed packets of edible plant varieties to those interested.
The distributed seed packets will contain 1 type of leafy vegetable from these 10 species:
The seed packets will also come with a plant care sheet in 4 languages and will be mailed to applicants’ addresses.
Those interested in getting the seeds can register for it here.
According to NParks, this distribution will bring the total number of seed packets given to the public to 860,000 since Jun 2020.
The Gardening with Edibles programme was launched to encourage the public to garden at home or in community gardens and allotment gardens.
It is in line with Singapore Food Agency’s (SFA) ’30 by 30′ goal of strengthening food resilience by producing 30% of our nutritional needs by 2030.
NParks shared that the importance of the programme could be seen in a recent study on the effects of gardening during the pandemic.
Amongst the 5,700 participants in the programme between May and July, it was found that those who gardened regularly showed higher mental resilience.
The study also suggests that regular gardening helps us regulate emotions, maintain good relations, and cope with stress during challenging times.
With this distribution, NParks hopes to extend these benefits to more.
Besides the seed distribution, NParks will also be launching the Social Enterprise Community Urban Farm Grant.
It aims to create more spaces for recreational gardening.
Through this, it hopes to increase community engagement and provide more employment and volunteering opportunities to residents.
The grant will help social enterprises set up community urban funds by co-funding site development costs at pre-identified plots.
Applications will open soon on 15 Nov. More information about the grant can be found here.
If you plan on trying your hand at growing edible greens at home, you can register your interest.
Registrations close on 31 Oct at 11.59pm so it’s best to do it as soon as possible.
Who knows, you might find yourself succeeding. You can then whip up some mean dishes using your very own greens.
Have news you must share? Get in touch with us via email at news@mustsharenews.com.
Featured image adapted from NParks and NParks.
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