Seniors can enjoy gardening, exercise sessions at refurbished community garden in Ang Mo Kio

SINGAPORE - A refurbished community garden has opened at Block 123 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 6 to provide senior residents with a space for activities to keep them active and engaged.

The wheelchair-friendly garden, initiated by social service agency AWWA, has a greenhouse where seniors can enjoy a spot of gardening.

It is also hoped that the scents of herbs and spice plants can trigger memories for people with dementia, who can also benefit from interacting with plants in the garden.

Mr Yip Hon Weng, MP for Yio Chu Kang SMC, launched the garden on Wednesday morning (April 6), planting chilli plants with some seniors at the event.

The community garden will also allow seniors and people with disabilities to participate in activities such as weekly exercise sessions conducted by the Health Promotion Board and gardening workshops by National Parks Board (NParks), and celebrations on festive occasions.

The greenhouse is maintained by AWWA Senior Community Home and supported by donors including CapitaLand Hope Foundation, CapitaLand Group's philanthropic arm.

AWWA will collaborate with government agencies like NParks to further enhance the healing elements of the garden by adding more sensory-stimulating plants.

Its staff will also attend workshops on therapeutic gardening to further improve the garden.

Mr J R Karthikeyan, chief executive of AWWA, said at Wednesday's event: "Shared spaces that are designed to be inclusive like this community garden are important for our seniors and persons with disabilities to not just have opportunities to interact with the community but to also enable them to stay active and age gracefully."