As well as increasing mindfulness, gardening can help you make friends in real life and online. In SIngapore, you can join the community garden in your area to meet your neighbours or join Facebook groups to chat about plants, show off your gardening photos and even swap free plants. To find the community garden in your neighbourhood, go here.

Good Facebook groups in Singapore that swap free plants and tips include Plant Swap Singapore (14K members) Home Gardening Singapore (104K members) and SG Farming in Apartments (20K members).

If you’d rather enjoy plants by painting or drawing them, consider joining The Botanical Art just look at plants, consider joining The Botanical Art Society of Singapore. You don’t need to be an expert artist – beginners are welcome. You get together with fellow plant fans and learn techniques and skills through workshops, sharing and painting sessions.

Gardening can be great exercise – digging the soil, cleaning out pots for new plants or watering the garden can be a great workout. Bending down to tend to your potted plants can also improve joint flexibility and balance.

Even better, you don’t have to trek to a gym to get exercise. You can tend to your plants at home and fit in a few minutes of activity and stretching at the same time.

Studies have also proven that indoor plants improve concentration and productivity by up to 15 per cent, plus they reduce stress hormones and boost your mood. So potted plants are perfect for your balcony and your home office area.

Even if you don’t have access to your own garden you can volunteer at National Parks or NParks in SIngapore. As well as getting exercise, you meet new people and feel the satisfaction of creating something beautiful.

For example, if you volunteer for the Community in Bloom programme with NParks you’ll be helping to maintain a park, with tasks that include sowing seeds, pruning, weeding, fertilising the soil, composting and identifying and labelling plants. You can find out more about all the different ways to volunteer at the gardens here.

If growing vegetables or herbs sounds more interesting, you can volunteer for the Horticulture programme. You’ll work closely with NParks helping to look after landscapes in parks and gardens, including the Kitchen Garden at Pasir Ris Park, the Spice Garden at Fort Canning. There’s even indoor roles – like cataloguing plants in the Herbarium at the Botanical Gardens.

You can find out more about all the different ways to volunteer at NParks gardens here.

Other places where you can volunteer your gardening time include Urban Garden at Farrer Park. Or you can grow vegetables at the sustainable and eco-friendly Community Aquaponics Project at Ang Mo Kio.

If you love the idea of making friends as you garden, try Ground Up Initiative, which encourages urban farming and promotes that kampong spirit of gardening together.

Take it slow.
Do not rush your gardening activity so you can get the benefit of slowing down and

Choose plants and gardening tasks that engage all your senses.
Smell the flowers, touch the leaves and listen to the sound of the wind in the branches.

Enjoy the process, not just the end result.
You may be growing vegetables to eat but you’ll enjoy them more if you take time to watch them growing. Spend time with your plants, and take time to chat to your neighbours in the community garden.

Water and feed your plants.
If you’re not sure how to start you can join online gardening groups to get tips. Or you can visit plant clinics at places like Hort Park and ask expert gardners how to care for your plants. Go to Gardeners Day Out, here.

Do not expect perfection.
It can take a lifetime to get great at gardening. But plants are very forgiving. Even if you are a beginner, they will probably do just fine.And if a few don’t make it, just remember the gardeners motto ‘growth follows the knife’ – in other words, We grow from challenges!

Text: Bauer Syndication/ARE Media

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