If you have considered created an edible garden at home, Community Garden Festival 2017 taking place this weekend, 3 to 5 November at HortPark, may be of interest to you.
The Community Garden Festival 2017 – Festival of Edibles aims to inspire visitors to consider edible gardening at home. It also serves as a platform for gardening enthusiasts to come together over a common interest in plants.
There are over 11,000 plants on display at the Community Garden Festival 2017. These can be found across different plots and locations at HortPark.
Here are some of the highlights of this year’s festival.
1. Gardening MarketPlace
At the main HortPark building is a gardening market place and fair. With over 60 booths and stalls, it is an opportunity to meet vendors selling both decorative and edible plants. You might even be tempted to buy a kit to start your own little garden at home.
Beside horticulture stalls, there are several food stalls (including a fair share selling ice cream) present too.
2. Edibles-inspired Displays
The centrepiece display of Community Garden Festival 2017 is a 3-metre tall Crimson Sunbird display. It is the creation of designer Harijanto Setiawan and is made out of edibles such as paprika, chilli and dragonfruit.
At the HortLawn, you can view three landscaped displays including one designed by NParks senior landscape architect Derek Chan that was inspired by kampong life and where visitors can get a whiff of durian.
3. Edibles Tech
At an indoor area at HortPark, view various innovations and technologies that are being developed to enable edible farming in Singapore. This includes indoor lighting developments for low-light locations.
4. Updated Community in Bloom Displays
Venture in the gardens at HortPark to view updated Community in Bloom Displays.
Created in 2015, these five garden displays have been refreshed with a variety of familiar, edible plants.
5. Edible Garden Trails
Children between the ages of five to 12 can pick up a trail map to head out around HortPark to explore and learn about different types of plants. There are two trail maps available, the Kitchen Garden Trail and the Edible Garden Trail.
6. Community Garden Tours
In conjunction with Community Garden Festival 2017, five community gardens and their gardeners will be hosting tours in November and December. These public tours will be carried out by community gardeners at Teck Ghee, Bukit Gombak – Hong Kah North, Bukit Panjang, Fengshan and Tampines. For more information on these tours, contact communityinbloom@nparks.gov.sg
Other activities planned at the Community Garden Festival 2017 includes tours, talks and cooking demonstrations. For full details, visit the event website.
Community Garden Festival 2017
Dates: 3 to 5 November 2017
Time: 9 am to 7 pm
Location: HortPark
Website