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Forbidden Garden
By peace | January 7, 2010
Photograph of my father scooping water from the rain barrel
This is the ‘Forbidden Garden’ which my father treasured. He had most vegetation such as peanuts, herbs, sweet potatoes, bittergourd, tomatoes, papaya and bananas here. Everyday he went to this garden to maintain his garden. He watered his plants and sow new seeds as well.
Photograph showing my father using rainwater (in the bucket) to water his plants.
My father loved this garden so much that he had built a shed there. It is like his second home there. Sometimes he would take his afternoon nap in his self-built shed also.
The ‘forbidden garden’ was very quiet and ‘interesting’ as well. Sometimes wild boar can be spotted as well! My father has several rain water barrels that can collect rain water during rainy days. During hot weather when there were no rain and no water, he would use the rain water that he had collected for watering all his plants.
In olden days when people lived in kampong houses, they used to collect rain water in buckets too. Nowadays, I still see a minority of families still doing rain harvesting like that (using pails) just outside their home (for ground floor dwellers). People living in flats cannot collect rain water at all. Only those people living in the ground floor can do so.
Photograph taken at Boon Lay Garden Primary School during a rainy day.
In my opinion, schools should have rain barrels too so that children can learn about water harvesting or water conservation like this. The schools should buy rain barrels and educate their gardeners, teachers and students on this area.
Topics: All Posts, Garden Walk, Personal, Places | No Comments »
