Category: Soil Companions

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Partners Soil Companions

Ang Ee Peng – Wah Son

Living a self-sustainable way in a Japanese zen monastery for 3 years, organically farming up to 4 types of rice and more than 20 types of vegetables – Ee Peng comes back to Singapore in 2015 and continues to farm in urban spaces. She has been actively transforming an industrial space in Seletar Aerospace into farming areas  with regenerative farming practices.

What plants do you grow in the area?

Pumpkin, Roselle, Okra, Eggplant, Purple Chilli, Sweet potato leaves, Kangkong, Fame Flower, Ceylon Spinach, Mustard Greens, Pak Choi.. With other herbs

Do you grow on a raised bed or directly in the soil?

Combination of the two

Roughly how large is your site?

About 1600sqm – courtyard area (800 m2); carpark (300 m2); production area (500 m2)

What are the microclimate conditions over time? (how sunny or shady, for how long? How wet and windy is the spot?)

A variety of conditions from full shade to full sun. Windy in all spots. 

What practices do you use with the soil?

Hugelculture. Using pruned tree branches as bottom layer of raised beds, green materials as second layer (uncooked food waste + Coffee grounds), third layer with garden prunings and then last layer with unconditioned clayey soil from original site.

Is there anything else about your site that is worth noting?

Materials from nursery are brought in for most plots only in the initial stages of growing. While some beds were started without compost or topsoil, only the soil originally in ground.

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Partners Soil Companions

Marcus Koe – Kembangan

How do we make community gardens a viable source of food supply?

Marcus Koe 

What plants do you grow in the area?

Pioneer trees, Fruit trees, Fruit vegetables, Root vegetables, Herbs, Legumes, Leafy perennials (to ask him what are pioneer trees?)

Do you grow on a raised bed or directly in the soil?

Directly in the soil

Roughly how large is your site?

100m2

What are the microclimate conditions over time? (how sunny or shady, for how long? How wet and windy is the spot?)

partial shade, increasing shade overtime as large pruned trees grow back their foliage. (to ask him wind condition, if it is affected by trees)

What practices do you use with the soil?

green mulching, Leaf litter mulching, No till, no chemicals, Some compost additions, occasional pelletised manure, Hugelkultur, Banana circle

Is there anything else about your site that is worth noting?

Site located at bottom of hill, so gets pretty wet in heavy rains. Construction rubble underneath; it’s a rather heavy clay soil. 

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Partners Soil Companions

Kiat Lay – Jurong Central Park

A scene from the garden at JCP

What plants do you grow in the area?

sunn hemp, pigeon pea, roselle, okra, sweet potato leaf, peanut, grape tomato, purslane, chilli, fame flower, malabar spinach, lemon grass, mani cai, mugwort, joyweed, Indian borage, brinjal, radish, turmeric, ulam raja, basil, balloon vine, lime tree, cranberry hibiscus, perilla, kang kong, mint, tarragon, moringa, okinawa spinach, aloe vera, tapioca, green chiretta, black face general, curry leaf, laksa leaf, mulberry, kale, Brazilian spinach, long bean, cotton

Do you grow on a raised bed or directly in the soil?

Combination of the two

Roughly how large is your site?

120 sqm

What are the microclimate conditions over time? (how sunny or shady, for how long? How wet and windy is the spot?)

It’s an open area without cover. Most of the area has direct sunlight, about 10% of the area is under tree shade.

What practices do you use with the soil?

The planting beds were initially created with a mixture of clay and compost providee by NParks. Throughout the time, we bury kitchen waste, fruit peels, compost, leaves from pigeon pea and sunn hemp in the soil regularly. We also created a hugelkultur bed where we buried decomposing logs inside.

Is there anything else about your site that is worth noting?

As it’s located in a park and not fenced up, it’s accessible to the public

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Partners Soil Companions

Tang HB – Methodist Girls’ School

An aerial shot of MGS garden

Human health comes from soil health.

Mr Tang HB
  • The lively pond area at MGS, in a regenerative food garden.
  • An aerial shot of MGS garden. The garden attracts biodiversity and sequesters carbon.

The garden space in Methodist Girls’ School (MGS) was badly damaged a few years ago when their sports complex was built near to it. Construction debris such as broken bricks and rocks was buried in the garden under a thin layer of landscape soil, on which grass was later planted. 

Before growing any crops, my friends and I had to remove as much construction debris from the soil as possible. We also added purchased soil and purchased compost to quickly amend the soil for growing. We used about 3 tons of purchased soil and 600 kg of compost to create the grow areas. We won’t need to buy anymore soil or compost because we are now creating our own soil and compost in the garden using food scraps from the canteen stalls, garden waste, grass clippings and fallen leaves.

The pond in the garden was poorly managed. There was only one species of fish – tilapia. The filtration system was not functioning properly. The water didn’t smell nice and there were string algae floating around. The school management was already planning to give up the pond and fill it up with soil to grow grass. I asked the them to let me try to revive the pond. Luckily, they agreed. Instead of using their artificial filtration system, I planted a diversity of aquatic plants and introduced more than 20 species of fishes. The ecosystem created is working well and the water is clear now. I have recorded 23 species of dragonflies visiting the pond. A few species are breeding in the pond. I can see their exuviae sometimes.

Today, the garden is producing food for both people and animals and is also providing ecological services. Teachers and students come to the garden not only to admire it but also to make observations on ecology. It is now a living classroom for students to learn about food and nature.

What plants do you grow in the area?

Edibles and ornamentals, annuals and perennials

Do you grow on a raised bed or directly in the soil?

Combination of the two

Roughly how large is your site?

About the size of a basketball court. 436 sqm

What are the microclimate conditions over time? (how sunny or shady, for how long? How wet and windy is the spot?)

A mixture of these

What practices do you use with the soil?
  • Mulching – the main practice.
  • Composting using soil in a shaded area.
  • Burying food scraps in soil in grow area.
Is there anything else about your site that is worth noting?

It is a regenerative food garden attracting biodiversity and sequestering carbon.