Farms in the Sky

Singapore's Rooftop Gardens

by Suellen Lee

In 2019, the Singapore government announced its “30 by 30” goal to meet 30% of Singapore’s nutritional needs locally and sustainably by 2030. We are already familiar with Singapore as a “City in a Garden,” but do we realize that a growing portion of our produce is actually locally grown? Combining Singapore’s “30 by 30” goal with its Garden City reputation has given rise to an unexpected hidden gem in this bustling islandcity: rooftop edible gardens that provide not just respite and relaxation, but also supply fresh produce for grocery stores and many farm-to-table restaurants. While most rooftop farms operate outside the public’s eye, you can find their produce on RedMart (e.g. comcrop.com), or order directly from rooftop farms like Citiponics (www. citiponics.com). Thankfully there are a few “sky farms” that are also gardens and are open to the public to check out.

Repurposed Planters

Urban Farm at Funan Mall

Romantic swingset on the rooftop of Funan Mall

In the center of Singapore, just steps from the City Hall MRT, sits Funan Mall - a redesigned, recently opened mall dedicated to inspiring play, learning, and creativity through innovation and technology. Besides being home to the WeWork coworking space and the Wild Rice theater company, Funan is also home to the 5000 sq ft Urban Farm found on the seventh floor rooftop where you can find shaded benches and swings amidst trellises of passionfruit, bottle gourd, long beans and shrubs of eggplant and lavender, under the shade of kaffir lime trees, among other citruses.

Rooftop view of Funan's Urban Farm

The Urban Farm, run by Edible Garden City (check out https://www.ediblegardencity.com/ for more about their farm-to-table projects!), has an educational mission as well, and if you happen to have a green thumb, this is a great place to see varieties of fruits and vegetables that grow well in the tropics. There are over 50 edible plants grown here - see if you can learn to identify dragonfruit, lemongrass, pandan, Brazilian spinach, Thai watercress, and the butterfly pea flower (which is blue in color and is a natural source of blue food dye!). Check out their hydroponic systems and how they add nutrients to the water they feed their plants using water from fish tanks.

Then, if you’d like to try some of their produce, try the farm-totable Japanese restaurant, Noka, located next to the farm on the seventh floor!

OUE Downtown Gallery, 5th floor (look for Lobby A!)

OUE Downtown Gallery's "secret garden" oasis

This is a quiet and definitely hidden gem that took a bit of sleuthing to find! If you are in the middle of downtown, maybe near Tanjong Pagar or Telok Ayer, and want a bit of real quiet, and are willing to go on a bit of a hunt, this could be your go-to relaxation spot. To get here, you must first find Lift Lobby A to get to the fifth floor, where the closest entrance/exit to Lift Lobby A is The Autobus Cafe on the ground floor of the OUE Downtown Gallery (which serves healthy meals like customized protein bowls!). Bring a book or listen to a podcast with your beverage of choice while surrounded by sweet potato vines, sawtooth coriander, butterfly ginger, rosemary and basil, or under trees bearing fruit like jackfruit.

It's all edible on the rooftop of OUE Downtown Gallery

Suellen moved from San Francisco, California to Singapore in 2019 with her husband, three sons, and geriatric cat. She runs, sometimes writes, and is a California licensed Clinical Psychologist.