Turning Brown Thumbs Green

by Christina Liew

Writers' Block: A contribution from our AWA Writers' Group members

My dog has been eating bits of my pothos plant, which, as it turns out, is toxic to dogs. She’s fine, by the way. And the plant is no worse for wear, except for one leaf with little teeth marks. It’s been moved out of her reach to join the ranks of my botanic infirmary.

Let’s be honest: My entire household of plants is an infirmary. I overwater. I forget who needs direct sun and who does not. I didn’t know about aerating or rotating until recently. Fertilizers scare me. So whichever plants have survived in my house are all in some stage of recovery (or decline). ChatGPT has me on a four-week revitalization program for an olive tree. I refuse to admit defeat despite plentiful evidence to the contrary.

I’ve lived in this highly urbanized country for more than twenty years. My neighborhood has more concrete than soil, and yet I see something new growing almost every week as I jog through the streets. Bananas, mangoes and papayas grow in people’s yards or on the side of the road. The park near my home is filled with feral rubber trees and hibiscus flowers. They blossom in the wild with just rain, sun and rotting organic matter. Without human intervention. Unlike my tortured houseplants, which are struggling under my very best efforts and AI-generated care plans.

This is a country of many contradictions, one of those being our relationship with nature. This is a country that routinely razes hundreds of hectares’ worth of 100-year-old trees to make space for condominiums and shopping malls. It is also a country that spent more than $1 billion to construct Gardens by the Bay, which includes two massive, state-of-the-art, climate-controlled domes to house... nature. Ah, Singapore.

During the COVID pandemic lockdown months, the human resources team from my husband’s company sent out miniature gardening kits to each employee's home. Gathered on a Zoom call, his team chattered excitedly like kindergarteners while assembling soil and seed mixtures into little pots, happy to do something productive and messy together. They watered and weeded the pots during weekly sales calls, and eventually harvested handfuls of microgreens. (We ate ours scattered on top of omelets.) Team-building became life-giving (literally), as the simple act of growing alfalfa sprouts somehow helped to counter the fear and uncertainty of a global pandemic.

And they were not alone. A friend built her own terrariums, with moss and ferns growing in self-sustaining glass enclosures. Another friend made a green wall in their living room by hanging an array of IKEA containers with hardy money plants. Bonsai trees were apparently in high demand. I even learned about Japanese kokedama, the practice of wrapping Everfresh Tree roots into a muddy ball bound with string. Scattered and isolated across Singapore, we instinctively and collectively leaned into horticulture as an avenue of meditative stress management.

Back in my home, I am building my own version of Gardens by the Bay. I bought a Click & Grow Indoor Smart Garden Pro, with automated dimmer lights and a foolproof watering system, which promise to grow herbs and flowers at an exorbitant cost. The stunted urban farmer in me rejoiced. Finally, a technology system where green things (and pink, and red, and yellow) would grow in spite of my worst efforts. Especially since the device is placed on a high shelf, away from my nibbly dog. Technology that promises to override brown thumbs.

There is no way to screw this up, right?

Media from Wix

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Christina Liew is a storyteller, community builder and impact advocate with 20+ years’ experience. She has a deep interest in meaningful narratives about the human experience. As a theatre-maker, Christina has written, directed and produced a number of original productions including two commissioned pieces from the National Arts Council of Singapore. In addition, she writes essays and personal stories that have been performed live with Method Productions. She has also been published on her advocacy work for women, girls and vulnerable people. Christina is a graduate of Boston University, where she received her B.S./B.A. in Film Studies/English Literature and M.S. in Communications.

The AWA Writers’ Group meets the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more information, send an email to writers@awasingapore.org   "If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it" Toni Morrison