In the modern, upscale township of Bangsar, lies a hidden gem that allows city folks to escape and unwind from the vortex of modern life.
Nestled on a hill in a residential area is where you’ll find Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, a community run garden that’s home to some lush greenery, vegetables, and even animals such as rabbits, peacocks, birds, chickens and geese.
Over the last five years since Kebun-Kebun Bangsar was opened to the public, it has received over 100,000 visitors.
View of Kebun-kebun Bangsar from a neighbour's house. photo from Kebun-kebun Bangsar Facebook page
The garden is truly built for the people. Aside from offering a nature escape, the vegetables planted are distributed to those in need.
The co-founder and chairman of Kebun-Kebun Bandar Society which is the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) behind Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, Ng Sek San, shared the journey of planting the garden together.
Having lived in Bangsar himself, Ng said he knew there were many underused reserved area which could be utilised for the community.
After approaching Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) and discussing with Local Agenda 21 (LA21), he received the green light to build a community garden and farm. When they received seed funding from Think City KL, it was all systems go.
photo by Kebun-kebun Bangsar Facebook page
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One of its mission was to foster a greater sense of community among the locals.
"From what I see, the community isn’t as united. We rarely talk to our neighbours - that was something we wanted to reverse.
"With this garden and farm, it’s easy to attract people regardless of age.
"We also want to set an example so that other neighbourhood can start their own garden too,” said Ng who was also the landscape architect for Kebun-Kebun Bangsar.
He recalled some fond memories throughout Kebun-Kebun Bangsar’s journey, some of which includes seeing children coming there to learn about recycling, turning organic waste to compost.
"The support we received from locals have been incredibly positive, even though they were initially quite apprehensive about us.
"There is one particular neighbour who recently built a greenhouse of their own and all the vegetables that they had planted was used to give to the poor,” Ng proudly shared.
Alam Flora workers received vegetables from the community farm. photo by Kebun-kebun Bangsar Facebook page
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Aside from Kebun-Kebun Bangsar, there is also Kebun-Kebun Kerinchi which is located near a low cost flat that carries a similar idea to the community garden in Bangsar.
Ng said that while Kebun-kebun Bangsar is built to give out vegetables to the needy, Kebun-Kebun Kerinchi encourages low income families to come plant their own vegetables to their own benefit.
Vegetables harvested from the community farm. photo from Kebun-kebun Bangsar Facebook page
It’s been a beautiful journey building Kebun-Kebun Bangsar and growing the community, but they were recently slapped with an eviction notice from Federal Territory Lands and Mines Department, for allegedly violating the terms of the Temporary Occupation License (LMS) for nursery purposes.
"We were disappointed as we should be recognised instead of being punished. Even the prime minister himself had praised our efforts.
"Three weeks ago he mentioned in his speech that Kebun-Kebun Bangsar is a good example for sustainability, and TNB tweeted in 2019 that we had a good initiative going on.
"We were shocked because this is not a simple eviction but it carries a jail sentence of up to five years,” he said.
Due to the notice, the volunteers who had been working along with Ng were discouraged as they felt apprehensive whether their volunteer work can be sustained or not.
However, in a previous article in Sinar Daily, Ng claimed they will fight and appeal in order to protect the community garden for the better.