As city kids, we are accustomed to seeking nature beyond the city lines. Mountains, beaches, and forests become the ecosystems that we come to associate the word “nature” with. Environmental stewardship becomes a concept rooted in a nature that is far away, beyond our homes, far from everyday routines and everyday sight. Rarely do we “see” or even seek nature within the city, especially when the city does not provide ample greens within its built-environment.
This is a major problem faced by many cities, including those in Indonesia.
In 2023, Jakarta achieved only 5,2% of the targeted 30% green space as the standard ratio for the proportion of green open space within the city area. This is in accordance with the mandate of Law Number 26 of 2007 concerning Spatial Planning. This scarcity is made even more obvious when compared to the 96 malls and trade centers alongside the whooping 149 skyscrapers across Jakarta. The gray concrete jungle leaves almost no space for nature’s greens. Faced with this ambiance, it almost feels more natural to forget about nature.
The thing is though, urban dwellers long for it. Whether we are attuned to it or not, nature is embedded within our very being. We are born interconnected with it – we breathe it, we are soothed by it, we innately respond to it. Connected and aligned with nature is how humans are evolutionarily meant to thrive and survive.
So how can we bridge a reconnection with nature inside the city walls? How can we build a life that integrates nature within our homes, our habits, our routine? How can we strengthen the underlying awareness that each one of our decisions and actions impacts the environment around us and nature as a whole?
Kebun Kumara believes that we can bring back nature in our daily lives by nurturing gardens and growing our own “fresh supermarket” at home, at school, at work and even in communal spaces. We believe in reconnecting with our role as Earthkeepers by redesigning the urban approach to living into one more interconnected and mindful of nature. Growing a little bit of food and medicine on our balcony? Raising a few chickens for eggs and compost? Planting a pocket forest in our yard? All are possible!
Since 2016, Kebun Kumara has designed learning programs and fun, nature-based activities for urban dwellers of all ages. We invite people to come and witness the garden up close and personal. We get them to reimagine their living spaces, their schools, sometimes even their Air B&Bs to one teeming with life, blanketed with the vibrant texture and colors of diverse flowers, herbs, fruit trees, vegetables and medicinal plants. We reintroduce the many forgotten indigenous plants and the local wisdom ingrained in its traditional and cultural application so we can all regain our understanding of how rich and impactful nature has been in shaping our ways of life. And finally, we get children to discover, interact and explore the garden so that they can reap the physical, mental and social benefits of nature play.
Our programs vary and cater to a wide range of demographics. We host monthly gardening, composting and farm-to-table workshops for the general public seeking more environmentally-friendly solutions to their everyday needs and habits. We design and facilitate programs for schools needing more ecologically-oriented learning for their students. We support parents of toddlers with nature-based programs so that their city-born-and-bred children can have their dose of Vitamin G (green) to support their holistic development and growth. And we also customize programs for companies needing more sustainability-focused activation for their internal employees as well as external beneficiaries. All of these programs have one shared silver lining, which is getting others to observe, interact and establish meaningful relationships with the nature around them as an entry point in building environmental stewardship and more mindful everyday choices.
Starting in 2018, Kebun Kumara also begin offering design and build landscaping services for anyone looking to grow gardens and pocket forests. We provide expertise in permaculture-design that prioritizes a functioning ecosystem alongside an aesthetic ambiance. Our services aim to support land owners in achieving their landscape needs whilst elevating the environmental functionality of their space. This includes reviving dormant potentials of the space to include rainwater harvesting, water filtration, pocket forest, composting zone, and other functional design elements. All in all, a design approach to realize the full potential of space so that both nature and people can reap benefits and enhance long term positive impact for the long run.
Kebun Kumara believes that being in a garden allows deep, intimate interactions with nature. From the billions of microorganisms alive in a handful of fresh compost, or the earthworms making home in the soil where that eggplant and chilly are growing, or even those grasshoppers eating lunch from the leaves of the sunflower plant we purposely grew for them so that their appetite can be satisfied without it needing to devour our veggie greens. The garden bridges us to a holistic understanding of how nature works, its principle of biodiversity, its eternal balancing act and the reality of today’s world that contradicts these values of sustenance and survival.
A garden is a beautiful manifestation of all the intricate rhythms of life composed into a melodious, unified tune. Every complex structure works for the prosperity of a greater system that benefits all. If everyone could just sow one seed, nurture one plant and grow one tree, we will rediscover what modern life made us collectively forget. We will come to understand that it is through nurturing that we are nurtured and through loving that we are loved.
So let us reconnect with nature, one plant, one pot, and one garden at a time.
Posted 22 Jul 2024
