Asia's high-rise gardeners unearth key to cooler cities

SINGAPORE May 10 (Reuters) Koi carp, goldfish, and a collection of giant tropical ferns: The only thing missing from this model modern Asian garden is -- the garden.

Complete with white reflexology pebbles underfoot, the breezy oasis is situated high on the twelfth floor balcony of one of Singapore's ubiquitous government-built high-rises.

Having an apartment garden relieves the ''monotony'' of living in concrete, said creator Furn Li.

''We needed something natural, like plants and fish, to add some life. It's a far-fetched idea for us to own a landed property, but, anyway, we have a nice garden here''.

The rapid post-sixties rise of the urban tower block saw Asia's low-level landed properties demolished for mass housing projects; and made backyards the domain of the minority who can afford detached homes.

It also created a unique urban gardening culture which is starting to flower as new voices popularise the idea.

Setting himself the goal of ''bring gardening to the masses'' Singaporean Wilson Wong, 28, started the Green Culture website in September 2004.

With no gardening shows on television and plant nursery staff often puzzled about how to advise apartment gardeners, the forum has attracted hundreds of active high-rise gardeners, keen to swap ideas and plant cuttings.

''I thought I was the only one -- the only odd nut, the only crazy person interested in growing vegetables'' said Wong, whose balcony-less flat houses 80 African violets, South American bromeliads and pitcher plants.

''Now people get to know each other. They exchange plants, they meet, they make nursery trips together. It makes gardening so much less painful''.

The same desire to fill the void of local knowledge drove Hong Kong's Arthur Van Langenberg to write Urban Gardening, his response to the wealth of ''glossy books dominated by sweeping lawns and massed tropical plantings''.

Like others he started small -- growing vegetables in wooden packing crates on verandahs as a teenager.

Now the 66-year-old doctor, who never dreamed of owning a tree, has avocado, papaya and lemon trees in metre-deep troughs. Hundreds more plants grow in pots and in the lawn that he planted on his first floor apartment's bare concrete yard 15 minutes from Hong Kong island's CBD.

''When people first looked at the photographs in the book they didn't believe I could grow all those plants. The Hong Kong Gardening Society came over to check!'' he said.

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