Memory contributed by Mr Eric Ng, Tampines Grove Residents' Committee. I grew up in a kampong environment and always liked being close to nature. HDB-living made me miss kampong life even more. Before doing community gardening at Tampines, I rented a small plot at Bah Soon Pah Road to do my weekend farming. You can say gardening had always been in my blood. Every moment spent in the community garden relaxes our mind. Our involvement is already a memorable experience in itself. It is not about getting CIB awards. It is not about words of appreciation from our MP. It is all about the good friends that we have made and made more memorable with the time we spent sweating together in the garden. We had a retiree who joined our garden and wanted to plant a specific Chinese herb for his cancer stricken wife. Of course, we readily accepted him and he would be in the garden on a daily basis tending to the entire garden (which is not an easy task) and growing his herbs. It is clear to see that he loves gardening…and his wife dearly. At specific times of the day, he will put down the task at hand and return home to cook for his wife. Sadly, his wife succumbed to the sickness and passed away a few months ago. Obviously he was heartbroken. He is still with the garden and doing a good job managing it. I believed having a garden to tend to must have made it easier for him during this hard time. Every plant is valuable in its own way. Most plants are grown from seed. Not all will grow into healthy plants, however for those that grow well, we have all put in the efforts and each is like a child to us. Whether it is a herb, spice, fruit tree, flower, vegetable, each has its unique patterns which should be appreciated. The first time we participated in CIB Awards was in 2010. We enjoyed the gardening process and getting the garden ‘perfect’ for the bi-annual competition. Interview was done by Azza & Jia Hui from the Community in Bloom (CIB) program of the National Parks Board (NParks). Launched in 2005 by NParks, the CIB program aims to foster a gardening culture among the people in Singapore.