Centre Director Paulee Wang firmly believes in the values of urban gardening and she has taken this project forward through a collaboration with passionate, like-minded environmental enthusiasts to build a purposeful and child-friendly, organic edible garden in Kebun-Kebun Bangsar – an urban garden and community park located in Bangsar.
Our children's garden is designed to house a variety of vegetables, herbs, fruiting trees and a fragrant garden, where play based learning will take place – resonating with the core essence of our brands Julia Gabriel Centre and Chiltern House Preschool. Sprouting Seeds remains a work in progress as we are roping in parents as partners, and the children to help establish and grow the garden through monthly gardening programmes.
The first ever volunteering opportunity took place on 26th May 2018 and we successfully planted seedlings and cuttings into the vegetable beds. Subsequent volunteering opportunities followed and our little piece of paradise on Earth began growing beautifully to house a wider variety of plants including ylang-ylang, a pumpkin patch, pearl barley, rosella and even butterfly pea flowers – all of which form part of our garden's essentials for sensory play. And thanks to external community service initiatives, we now have a charming wooden platform built by volunteers to benefit the garden visitors and a beautiful pond.
Watch out for our signage, "Sprouting Seeds Children's Garden" located close to the hilltop of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar and visit us! The garden is subject to the opening hours of Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, and is open for visitations by the public.
For more updates on Sprouting Seeds and our gardening programmes which are also open to all, follow us on our Instagram @JuliaGabrielKL.
THE NAME: SPROUTING SEEDS
William Shakespeare once questioned, "What's in a name?".
The brains behind the name, Sprouting Seeds is Hurin, who is our teacher at Chiltern House CITTA Mall centre. The name was selected after winning the popular vote with submissions received from parents, children and staff.
So we asked her how the name came about. "When the school announced that we will be growing an edible play garden, it was such an exciting piece of news. Imagine an outdoor classroom, learning in nature! So when nomination was open to all staff and our parents to name the garden, Sprouting Seeds immediately came to mind. When I think about seeds, I think about them sprouting! And I'd also learned in naming, it's always a good idea to make it sound similar, in that both parts of the name begin with the letter 's'. And that was it, Sprouting Seeds was my submission and the school did a round of voting, and next I knew, it won the popular vote!"
"It's going to be quite cool seeing that name in the garden," – Hurin.
MORE ON THE GARDEN
[Update as of 11th March 2020, due to the current Covid-19 outbreak and as a precautionary measure from the school to minimise risk of spreading the virus through group gatherings, we have decided that it would be in the best interest to reschedule all of our "Connect with Nature" course dates until further notice.]
Beginning 2020, we will be working closely with Khim Joe of Children of Soil as we embark on a new direction for Sprouting Seeds, introducing a specially designed 10-part course series, "Connect with Nature" to benefit the community at Sprouting Seeds. The main objective of this program is to allow the community to connect with Nature through the act of gardening. There will be different topics on gardening for each month and by end of the year, participants will be equipped with all the basic knowledge on growing a garden.
Connect with Nature at Sprouting Seeds
10-Part Course
29th March 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Building Healthy Soil
25th April 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Moon Gardening: Cycles of the Moon
31st May 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Moon Gardening: Four Elements with Plants
27th June 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Moon Gardening: Pairing the Moon with Gardening Activities
26th July 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Befriend a Plant: Birthing of Plants
29th August 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Befriend a Plant: The World of Leaves
27th September 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Befriend a Plant: The World of Flowers
31st October 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Communicating with Plants: Nourishments for Plants
29th November 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Communicating with Plants: Food for Plants
19th December 2020, 8.30am to 10.30am Biodiversity in the Garden: The World of Insects & Animals
Note: This 10-part course is free for all staff and parents of Julia Gabriel Centre and Chiltern House Preschool Kuala Lumpur. However, it is also open to the general public, subject to a minimal fee payable to Children of Soil. If you're not a staff or parent, please click below to sign up.