- Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
View of the renovated lily pond at the Royal Botanical Gardens (Hope Gardens) in St. Andrew. At right, the bridge across the pond has been repaired and repainted.
Georgia Hemmings, Staff Reporter
THE GREENING of Jamaica Foundation (GJF) is determined to transform the face of Jamaica through community gardening. And its energetic, environmentally-conscious members have started their mission with the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hope, St. Andrew, popularly called Hope Gardens.
On July 20, the group handed over a refurbished lily pond to the Nature Preservation Foundation, a non-governmental organisation which will manage and redevelop facilities at Hope Estates (inclusive of the gardens and the zoo) for the next 49 years.
The sunken garden with the water lily pond has been cleaned, and the flower-lined walkway restored. The wooden bridge across the pond and the fenced enclosure have also been repaired and repainted.
Hundreds of water lilies now dot the water while fish dart below the surface. In the distance, a miniature replica of the island can now been seen, dotted with flowering poui, mango, breadfruit and ackee trees, sugar cane, plantain and one non-native pine tree. The upgrading project took nearly a year to complete at a cost of about $1.4 million. It was the brainchild of Gloria Palomino (chairperson), Lloyd Perkins, Sonia Mills, Olive Gibson, Norma Shirley, Andrew Pearman and Sybil N'Toutoume who comprise the GJF.
PROGRAMME OF GARDENS
"We want to bring back green areas in the city through a programme of gardens," Mrs. Palomino told The Sunday Gleaner at the official handing-over on July 20. "In this way, we hope to beautify the city and reclaim neglected and abandoned lots from urban decay. In fact, the pond clean-up was action on an earlier initiative by businessman Karl Chung, who had actually cleaned the pond but it fell back into disrepair."
This time round, the foundation received assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture, which oversees Hope Estates, and the Superintendent of Public Gardens, Norman Richards. He and his team of gardeners (full-time and part-time) spent hours and days effecting repairs, cutting the overgrown grass and cleaning algae from the pond, standing chest-high in the water at times. Clean-up was the group's official Labour Day project earlier this year.
"It was hard work, very hard work," gardener Keith Harrison told The Sunday Gleaner. "My colleagues and I worked really, really hard. But I'm glad to see the effort the foundation is making to bring back the gardens to its former beauty." He has been retained to continue regular maintenance two times per week.
STERLING CONTRIBUTION
Mr. Richards' hard work and "sterling contribution" were acknowledged by the foundation, which presented him with a painting (landscape) at the handing-over ceremony.
Environmental awards were also made to NCB and Sealy Mattress Company (WI) Limited for beautification efforts.
According to Mrs. Palomino, "These two companies, through their respective management, are to be praised for the initiative they have taken to 'adopt' verges near their headquarters and create 'green' areas."
In fact, the encouragement of more corporate verges is the next area of operations for the GJF, as well as the development of mini-parks in inner-city communities. Two sites have been identified in Trench Town and Duhaney Park, and, with the co-operation of citizens' associations, improvement work will begin soon.
GJF started life as Greening of Kingston with a view to beautifying the city. However, incorporating a wider mandate, the group re-registered in August 2003 under its present name. Enthusiastically embracing the project to refurbish the Hope lily pond, the group set to raising money raised through fund-raising activities, and plants and other necessary materials were sourced through solicitation. When money fell short, a grant was obtained from the Environmental Foundation of Jamaica to complete the work.
Now the GJF and the Nature Preservation Foundation want visitors to the gardens to help maintain its beauty. This includes no littering of grounds, no fishing in the ponds and no destruction or vandalism of plants and trees.
The renovation is a part of a larger plan by the Nature Preservation Foundation to expand and develop Hope Estates over the next 10 years. Its multi-phase plan includes expansion of the zoo to showcase three geographic areas (Jamaica, Africa and South America), a trail system for joggers, a mini-dam and a flight cage. There will also be biodiversity and research centres to highlight the three central themes of conservation, education and research.
