Today, I visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens…

For those who are already aware, I have relocated to Singapore looking for a change in work environment and to experience new cultures and lands. This has meant that I had to give up my ladies – passing them on to trustworthy beekeepers, one hive to my mentor and the other to my buddy beekeeper. As difficult as this decision was, I believe it is for the better of my personal growth and learning.

I have been in Singapore for just one week and am still trying to explore and understand what “nature” and “wildlife” means here. Today, I visited the Singapore Botanic Gardens. They are a nationwide treasure with several themed gardens. I spend half the day there and wondered through the Evolution Garden (think dinosaurs and ferns!), the Healing Garden, Orchid Garden, Ethnobotany, Trellis and the Foliage Garden. It’s fair to say I did not even see half the Gardens, especially as I stopped to stare at every single butterfly and bird I encountered.

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  Sunbathing 🐢🐢

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  Mama with chicks 😊

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  My new (second) favourite insect – red velvet 💜

To put things into perspective, here are some statistics that I am still unable to get over:
The total land of Singapore is half that of London. The population of Singapore is 5million (half of London’s population is 4million). Still, a third of the country’s land is made up of parks and nature reserves (London’s total “natural habitats with open space” account for 33%). *

Singapore therefore has the total “natural space” of the whole of London in half the space, with no less but more population.

And here I was, in these Botanic Gardens that felt like a jungle, not just a garden, looking at the most exotic of plants on this earth. Some of the plants are even rare, endangered. With such emphasis on sustainability and green ecology, you would think that bees would be part of this phenomenon, but no. You read right, I had not seen a single bee during my adventure through the Botanic Gardens. This could be any of several reasons: no bee-pollinated plants? no hives in the gardens? not a good day (although everyday is a good day over here)? I didn’t go to the right part of the garden?

In my opinion, this calls for further investigation, therefore a second visit (at least) to the Botanic Gardens. I definitely don’t mind 💚😉

*London Green apace Facts taken from GiGL. All geographical data taken from Wikipedia.