Pioneering mind changed massive hillside to Kadoorie Farm
Nature and nurture effortlessly balanced at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden
Nature artistry on show at Kadoorie Farm
There is something enchanting about a garden where nature and nurture are effortlessly balanced. Wandering the meandering paths of the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden is an unexpected and truly delightful adventure, and quite a relief.
“We plant, we dream, we fantasize about flowers, and we see behind them the people who once gave them to us or first showed up their beauty…” Robin Lane Fox
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By incorporating rather than changing the natural world, Kadoorie’s botanic garden and farm near Tai Po in the New Territories has successfully achieved a soothing and harmonious balance within the existing landscape – a steep terraced garden and a natural tumble of water down a hillside – all accompanied by birdsong.
Orchid blooms scatter splashes of colour
In spring, petals of the Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia) are scattered on the shady paths. Sunny spots are filled with bright splashes of colour from a profusion of scarlet and terracotta bougainvillea.
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Both white and yellow jasmine (Jasminum mesnyi) are in bloom; bees and bugs are busy at work within the clusters of white petals of Chinese Privet (Ligustrum sinense).
In shadier areas, delicate white and pink azaleas are in flower. The garden is filled with surprises like sculptor Raymond Pang Kam Yau’s whimsical wooden snail benches (carved from the garden’s fallen timber), whose purpose is to encourage passers-by to take a slower pace in life; or the impressive, alien-like clusters of highly scented lime green flowers belonging to a tropical vine (Mucuna birdwoodiana).
Long brown pods from last season’s flowers still hang from this vine that stretches up into the tree canopy above. Patinaed by weather and time, tiled bridges span ponds and waterfalls as you climb steeply upwards, to take a very welcome rest in the two-storey rainbow pagoda overlooking the valley below.
1950 idea to help migrants post war
It is hard to imagine that this luxurious tropical wonderland was once a barren hillside. In the 1950s, as part of a humanitarian and philanthropic endeavour, the Kadoorie family decided to help migrants who arrived in Hong Kong after World War II.
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Since many were unskilled workers, the experimental farm’s original intention was to provide these new arrivals with agricultural training. The farm, which also supported local villagers, once included orchards, experimental crops and livestock such as pigs and chickens.
Farm training for soldiers
It also helped to retrain the island’s Gurkha soldiers to become self-sufficient when they returned home to Nepal.
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Since then, the venture has blossomed, moving its focus towards conservation and sustainability with an emphasis on preserving rare species of plants and animals. Today, the garden showcases how nature and human activity can be balanced in a more sustainable way.
Nature and human activity in sustainable way
Yet some vestiges of its original purpose remain.
The sound of chickens and roosters crowing in the Norman Wright Memorial chicken display can be heard as you walk up through the garden, and there is even a pigsty.
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The garden’s biodiversity also protects some of Hong Kong’s rarest and most endangered plants, butterflies and animals. Since 1994, Kadoorie’s rescue team has handled more than 52,000 creatures.
Where possible, injured or sick wildlife are nursed back to health and released into their natural habitat. But sometimes serious injuries mean they can no longer fend for themselves.
Rare wildlife on display at Kadoorie Farm
So many of Kadoorie’s animal and bird exhibits are an opportunity to see rare local wildlife, such as delicate and sleek, chestnut-coloured barking deer, leopard cats, owls and other raptors.
Attached to each enclosure are detailed notes about the individual animal; to help visitors understand why it was not possible for it to survive, if released.
Apart from protecting local wildlife, the organisation is also working with southern Chinese authorities to protect a long list of endangered species, including one of the world’s most threatened species – the Hainan gibbon. With only thirty left in the wild, this species remains close to extinction.
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Growing interest in protecting the environment and an increasing demand for organic food means Kadoorie’s original purpose – farming – has resurfaced. This reincarnation is in the form of a delightful organic eco-garden and vegetable patch.
Tucked away behind a white picket fence, brightly coloured and edible nasturtiums cascade around vegetables and herbs in a meandering cottage-style urban garden that neatly combines innovative design, beauty and purpose.
Just a stone’s throw away, the self-sufficient Eco-garden and One-dou organic vegetable patch is distinctly utilitarian and educational.
Eco-garden organic vegetable patch
Named after a local unit of measurement equal to 674 square metres, the tiny “farm” highlights how, with a minimal input of labour of only ten hours a week, a relatively small veggie patch can produce enough produce to feed a number of people for a year.
Of course, it is impossible to separate nature and art, so apart from having its own art house, Kadoorie also hosts botanical installations like a recent one by Lantau-based artist Zheng Bo: Life is Hard. Why do we make it so easy? Bo’s work has previously been exhibited in Hong Kong, Berlin and Lisbon, as well as biennales in Taipei and Shanghai.
Kadoorie Farm hillside is a local treasure
What was once bare hillsides has blossomed into one of Hong Kong’s greatest treasures, a place where rare and endangered species are preserved for posterity and where the combination of the natural world and sustainable practices have created a blueprint for a more sustainable future in Hong Kong.
But best of all, it is a place where nature’s artistry gently calms the mind and revives the soul. What more can you ask from a garden?
Text Ingrid Piper / Photos Cammy Yiu
