Land-scarce countries like Singapore rely on imported food supplies. With urban farming or urban gardening, cities can explore creative ways of growing produce right at their homes. First things first...
What is urban gardening?
Urban gardening is the process of growing plants of all types and varieties in an urban or peri-urban environment. Also known as urban horticulture or urban agriculture, urban gardening encompasses several gardening concepts, including:
- Container gardening: Making use of a variety of containers like buckets, old tires, raised beds, window boxes, or watering cans for growing plants. Common for people with small patios, yards, or balconies.
- Indoor gardening: When no patios, decks, yards, or balconies are available, indoor gardening may be a better option. Plants can be grown in containers similar to those in container gardening, as well as in indoor greenhouses or sunrooms.
- Community gardening: Gardening for people without any yards nor outdoor space. This gardening method utilizes outdoor public or private spaces to cultivate gardens for food or pleasure as a group or community.
Urban gardening provides not only environmental and social benefits, but also several psychological and health benefits, such as:
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Providing a local source of food (edible gardens)
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Bringing communities and families together
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Educating urban children about the origins of food
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Adding more green spaces to cities
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Helping filter air and rain water
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Providing instant stress relief and mental health support (Yes, it’s scientifically proven!)
Sounds awesome? Read on to know how you can easily start your urban garden in your Singapore HDB flat! (Note: This guide is best for people who find gardening a little intimidating and can’t seem to keep a plant alive for some reason.)
Gardening in an HDB flat?
Before you start setting up your garden, you need to ensure a safe environment for you and your neighbours to prevent any mishaps or complaints. According to TheSmartLocal, you can have your plants along your HDB corridor but a clear width of 1.2M should be left unobstructed in case of emergencies.
Error 404: Gardening skills not found?
Don’t worry! Not everyone’s born with a green thumb (though we wish it was the case). But luckily enough, it can be nurtured and we’ve got just the perfect solution for this. Cue drum roll… introducing, Paris Garden® grow kits!
Paris Garden®
Grow it! Eat it! Paris Garden® offers a complete range of reliable kits specially designed to grow fresh kitchen herbs, spices, fruits and vegetables or beautiful flowers at home - it is what we call URBAN FARMING!
Kits are supplied with soil, seeds and containers and you just need to add water to start enjoying. The flowers, vegetable and kitchen herb kits are just great to grow food at home and the gift range educates kids to a greener place.
Paris Garden® offers fantastic value with distinctive and beautiful packaging, reusable containers, easy to follow instructions and great accessories. And all seeds are 100% natural, untreated, and guaranteed to grow.
Click here for more info about Paris Garden®. Fun fact: Paperclip Pte Ltd is the exclusive distributor for Paris Garden® in Singapore!
Paris Garden® Windowsill Daisy Easy Grow Kit
For this guide, we’re featuring the Daisy Easy Gardening Kit—an easy grow kit supplied with seeds, soil, and containers in one. All you have to do is add water and start growing 🌼
Just three simple steps to get started:
Step 1: Hydrate the starting soil/peat pellets.
First, unpack the kit and place the starting soil pellets inside the pot.
Galvanized windowsill pot, seeds packet, starting soil, instructions & growing tips
4 x tablets of dehydrated compressed natural coco peat
Quick fact about this starting soil: Natural soil conditioner enriches the soils in your garden with these coco peat blocks. It’s specially designed for Paris Garden and makes a great starting soil!
Next, add the water, pausing for a few minutes between applications. The coco peat will fluff up and become pliable as it absorbs the water. If there are youngsters around, this initial step is fun for them to watch, as the block will actually “bloom” in slow motion right before their eyes!
Adding about 300ml of water for the Windowsill variant
Using a leftover plastic fork to stir because why not!
Let it soak for a while then stir with a fork to obtain a soil-like mixture. Or feel free to use your hands for added stress-relieving benefits! #onewithnature
Tadah! The four small pellets rehydrate to this much soil to fill the entire windowsill pot!
Step 2: Sow the seeds.
Next, sprinkle the seeds evenly into your soil mixture. You can use the whole packet or split them into two different batches if you wish.
Step 3: Cover the seeds with soil and give it some sun!
Covering the daisy seeds with some soil
For the last step, we simply need to cover the seeds with some soil and place the pot in an area with lots of sunlight like in your corridor or balcony!
And that’s it! We tried to go into detail about it, but in reality, working with Paris Garden® grow kits is actually pretty easy and intuitive. And what we love about them is that they’re great for all ages. Gardening for the elderly, for parents and children, name it; it has plenty of benefits for anyone who does it. It also makes a great activity when you’re stuck at home and looking to do something worthwhile. Therapeutic, even!
And if somebody told you that you can’t grow plants in your apartment, share this article with them because #sharingiscaring!
Stay tuned for more gardening adventures 🌱
#SpectrumGardening #SpectrumStoreSG #PaperclipSG
Shop Paris Garden Windowsill Daisy here: https://www.paper-clip.com.sg/collections/paris-garden/products/windowsill-coloured-daisy
References:
http://www.ecolife.com/define/urban-gardening.html
https://thesmartlocal.com/read/urban-farming-singapore/