Urban Gardener: Ismail Hj Suratman

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All photographs in this article are credited to Mr Ismail Hj Suratman and his team.

Mr Ismail Hj Suratman, Chairman of Tampines Starlight Resident Committee, and his team of committed gardeners have created an incredibly successful garden in Tampines, Singapore. His responses intrigued me, because they had a lot to do with organising people, and not just plants.I look forward to visiting this beautiful urban garden during my next trip across the Causeway!

First off, tell me a bit about yourself!

In 2008, I was appointed as the Chairman of Tampines Starlight Resident Committee. Upon taking over the Chairmanship, I took the opportunity to gather a group of enthusiastic and hardworking gardeners. We forged a bond among residents through learning and sharing experiences, participating in NParks Community In Bloom bi-annual competition, and manning gardening booths at NParks events. Among the events that we have participated in are the World Orchid Conference, Singapore Garden Festival, Health Promotion Board, Housing and Development Board 50th Anniversaries and our Tampines Clean & Green Week.

Since then, together with this small group of gardener residents, we started to design, plan and work towards the concept of a garden in a urban estate, with few agenda in mind:

1. A community garden is a place to forge bonding among residents
2. The gardeners have to learn and share of knowledge
3. The gardeners must build up a network among the gardeners' group
4. The gardeners must build exposure through competition participation.

• In 2011, I was awarded as NParks Community In Bloom Ambassador for actively promoting community gardening.
• In 2012, I was awarded Pingat Bakti Masyarakat (PBM), a National Day Award for my community grassroots work.
• In 2012, I was also a Team Leader for S'pore Gardener's Cup team which we won the competition and received the award from our President.

Our previous Urban Gardeners lived in Malaysia in landed property with their own backyards. In urbanised Singapore, where is your urban garden and can you describe it?

Our community urban garden is located at Blk 718, Tampines St 72. In 2006, we started in a humble way in an open space and without fencing. This has posed few problems for us. Plants and vegetables were stolen and this has upset the gardeners as we did not have proper control.

In 2008, upon taking over RC Chairman, I have identified gardening as one of the areas to forge bonding among residents. It also helps to beautify the place and is another way of offering a learning journey to other resident or gardening group. Each gardeners were assigned to tasks based on their strength and abilities. In other words, they are not only gardeners, but also a landscaping designer and horticulturist.

The size of the garden is about 10 m to 10 m and divided into two sections. The first section is being used by the Resident Committee as a learning area for residents and visitors while the other section is reserved for residents' gardening.

The design was established with the fact there must be a focal point for residents and visitor to interact for learning and forging bonding purposes. Our garden chose herbal plants from different communities in Singapore, not only to serve as a medicinal purposes but to offer the younger generation a chance to learn, see, touch, smell and taste.

Why start a food garden at home?

In an urban environment, especially a country like Singapore with land scarcity, the residents must be given a chance to start gardening. First, it will bring back memories of kampung days. Second, with a food garden at home, it helps to build community bonding through sharing. Third, in case of emergency, residents can prepare for food ration which can last for few days before more help can be given.

Who do you share your food garden with?

Our food garden is shared among residents, especially the pandan leaf. However, there are a few occasions during which beetle leaf, Indian Borage, Seven torn and henna leaves are shared among residents.

We are all strapped for time, so how do you manage your garden?

It is a big challenge for myself being a worker, a father, a grassroots leader and at the same time a gardener. However, I am very thankful to my small group of gardeners who are enthusiastic, hardworking and responsible. Basically, they perform their responsibilities with minimal supervision. As for myself, I will spend time gardening on most weekends. One such example, our last 2014 NParks Community IN Bloom competition, I spent six of my weekends to help the gardeners re-design and prepare for the competition either in rain or shine.

Keeping a community garden sustainable is often a challenge. With your fellow gardeners in mind, how do you keep your garden sustainable?

First, you must have a vision and objective. In order to sustain a garden, this is my philosophy:

1. Forge bonding among your gardeners
2. Create opportunity for them to learn and sharing through NParks courses, talks and conference
3. Build up their networking among the gardeners group in Singapore
4. Build their exposure through participation of competition such as NParks CIB competition, Singapore Gardeners' Cup in Singapore Garden Festival

Happy gardeners who know that their effort are being appreciated will in return help to maintain and sustain the garden.

With your experience in dealing with gardeners, what would your advice be to urban food garden novices?

Ultimately, time is a key factor. Knowing that you have tight working schedule and a family, distribution of gardening works is important. Delegate some work to them with and keep the decision making role. Trust your gardeners. Share knowledge among ourselves. Have a small discussion especially if it involve changes to the garden. Listen to what the gardeners have to share. Never give an empty promise if it is beyond your jurisdiction. Try new ideas. Basically, let's make gardening a fun activity.

Especially in regards to interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, what has your food garden taught you?

It has taught me to be more humble which led me to be more calm, closer to nature and forged my community bond. It also helped me sharpen my leadership skills, exposed me to communicating with different kinds of people, and placed me on a learning journey about plants and their benefits. Most importantly, with the greenery before my eyes, a small world of flora and fauna was created within my living environment.

With this in mind, I hope I have contributed in a small way to NParks vision of City In a Garden, where greenery is bought nearer to the residents. This is what happening now with our Streetscape gardening along Tampines St 72 which has caught the heart of my Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education and Advisor to Tampines Central GRO. He mentioned during his closing speech at closed-door Focus group discussion, "Streetscape at Tampines Starlight precinct cannot be replicated at other Resident Committee". I am glad about this small contribution, with the help of my gardeners and the Residents' Committee members.

While this interview takes place, I have also formed a small group on the proposed publication of book "Herbs In the Community Garden" for our 50th year of Singapore National Day celebration next year. It is not only about the publishing of herbs book, because if this project successfully goes through, we want to help the needy families in Tampines Central through our sales proceeds. This food garden has also left me with this project in mind to help others whenever the opportunity comes, insya-Allah.