Turning Empty Land into Community Gardens

Empty land is a common sight in many Malaysian towns. A strip of ground beside a block of flats or behind a school may be left alone for years, collecting rubbish and tall grass. 27 ______ In dozens of neighbourhoods, residents have turned these forgotten spaces into community gardens, where any household on the street may plant, water and harvest.

The clearest benefit is cheaper food. Vegetables such as kangkung, chillies and long beans grow quickly in our climate and need very little equipment. 28 ______ Families who join a garden often report that their weekly shopping bill has become noticeably smaller.

A community garden is also a classroom. Teachers from nearby schools bring their pupils to the plots to study soil, insects and the life cycle of a plant. 29 ______ Lessons learnt in this way stay in the memory far longer than a diagram in a textbook.

Perhaps the greatest change is a social one. In a large housing area, neighbours may live side by side for years without learning one another's names. Working on the same plot gives them a simple reason to speak. 30 ______ These small conversations slowly build the trust that a safe neighbourhood depends on.

31 ______ Plants and damp soil cool the air around them, and a green plot soaks up rainwater that would otherwise rush straight into the drains. A row of young trees along a garden fence can make a street far more comfortable on a hot afternoon.

32 ______ Cheaper vegetables, practical lessons, friendlier streets and cooler air all grow out of the same small piece of land. Ground that nobody wanted can, with a few tools and a little cooperation, become the most useful corner of a neighbourhood.

Sentences A to H

A When children measure their own seedlings every week and write down the figures, they are practising mathematics without noticing it.
B Local councils should fine any resident who refuses to take a turn at the weeding.
C However, unused land does not only waste space, it can also become something valuable for the people who live around it.
D Finally, a garden of this kind helps to cool a crowded town.
E Moreover, most of these gardens are kept locked, and only committee members are allowed inside.
F They cost no more than a few ringgit as a packet of seeds, yet one planting can feed a household for weeks.
G For example, a retired man who waters his plot at dawn greets the same young mother every morning until the two of them become friends.
H In conclusion, a community garden gives back far more than the food that is harvested from it.