The Gasing
The Gasing is a community permaculture food garden managed by eMacro Health Asia.
In the Malay language, "Gasing" refers to a spinning top, a toy designed to spin rapidly in spirals by balancing itself upon a single point when set in motion. It also happens to be the name of the place where our community food garden is located.
Here in Gasing, we contribute to maintaining the balance of our ecosystem by creating a small ecosystem right here in our own front yard. Few words can express the joy and satisfaction of observing the frolicking butterflies, the humming bees, the activity of earthworms wiggling beneath the soil, the occasional bubbling and splashing of fish living in the 3 little ponds built by our very own hands, and the all-permeating fragrance of beautiful flowers planted all around the garden.
The Gasing community food garden was initiated by June Ka Lim towards the end of year 2017 with help from kind-hearted volunteers from all over the world, including Yang from Australia, An and Hon from Vietnam, and suggestions, comments, and inputs from Patricio in Japan. We also received help locally from James, Soo Fong, Ding Wen, Yan Jiun, Spring, Max from Selangor, Valerie and her mother from Trengganu as well as Lingling and Chooi Ling from Butterworth. At the time of writing, the garden is beginning to take shape with about 87 species of vegetation including vegetables, spices, edible flowers, fruits, root vegetables, a herb spiral, a few swales, and 7 vegetable patches.
Through our efforts, we hope to create awareness on urban farming, working as much as we possibly can towards a self-sustainable lifestyle. We regularly conduct courses on educating the public using herbs and edible flowers plucked straight from our food garden.
It feels truly amazing to be able to connect our food with nature and living light on the earth.
By June Ka Lim
11 June 2018
