National Pride Survey in Singapore - Gardens

Gardens

Gardens and gardening have a special place in Singaporean culture as well as in politics. Although the footprint of British culture is clearly seen in Singapore, it is a densely populated city and after 2nd World War came out quite a poor city, fighting for survival. In most big cities this would mean that gardening was not to be a priority, not of the inhabitants and certainly not of the government. But in this respect Singapore seems to have chosen another way. Gardening is common, even very small plots are gardened and it is even a priority of the government talking about "The Garden City" and most recently "Our City in a Garden".

Historically this is all officially attributed to Lee Kuan Yew who apparently spearheaded this philosophy in 1963. In a rare interview with Monty Don shown in the TV-series Around the World in 80 Gardens, Lee Kuan Yew reveals that after visits to other big Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Bangkok he feared that Singapore would turn into another concrete jungle, and he decided that gardens and parks should be established everywhere and made this a priority of the government.

Today it is clear that Singapore is a very green city with numerous well-tended parks, some of world fame such as the Singapore Botanic Gardens, but also a great interest in private gardening - even if it is just a very small plot outside a public housing block or even a few pots on the balcony. There are even a few nature reserves of primary rainforest, f.ex. the Bukit Timah nature reserve.

Curiously, this is still a priority of government, even if Lee Kuan Yew is no longer the prime minister. Changing the concept from "Garden City" (a city with gardens) to "Our City in a Garden" (everything to be thought of as one big garden) launching new big projects as Gardens by the Bay and the park connector project (all major parks connected by foot- and cycle-paths). Another part of the new initiative is trying to create focus on "garden tech" development such as Green roofs and Green walls which is being integrated in many big buildings, both public (Hospitals, Schools) and private companies.