This past Saturday saw our students contribute to a greener Singapore with the planting of pandan seedlings around our campus. Why pandan you ask? Well, pandan is known for its mosquito and cockroach repelling properties (let’s not forget their culinary uses as well), and in an open environment such as ours that is surrounded by lush greenery on all sides, the pandan plant plays an important role in limiting the appearance of those pests.

Our 12 student volunteers started work early at 9am in the school garden where our staff, Mr. Ho, taught them the basics on planting. For the uninitiated, there is more to planting seedlings than just “dig a hole and put the seedling in” which our students soon found out. In addition to learning the correct way to use the shovels and rakes, they were taught the type of hole they had to dig (in this case it is approximately 10 inches deep and 5 inches in diameter), how to find the right spots for digging, ensure there is a minimum distance of 1.5 meters between plants, remove foreign materials from the holes such as pebbles and plastic, and how to plant them straight with enough soil to properly cover the plants.

The hard work and enthusiasm displayed by our students saw them complete the planting of all 30 seedlings within the hour and start washing the tools which were used, capping the entire event by 11am. A job well done to the 11 students who volunteered their free time to better the school community. Maybe next time we will consider clearing the trash instead huh?