He Sold His Dream Car To Build A Home For Wildlife

When his mother passed away, Ganesh became the only breadwinner left in the family and had to focus on taking care of everyone else. Covid slowed life down enough for him to finally grieve – and that’s when he began planting.

What started as something personal has since grown into a small but surprisingly powerful space for wildlife and community.

“Every day is different”

When people ask Ganesh what’s special about the garden, he doesn’t name one big highlight.

He says the best part is that every single day feels different: what flowers within the garden, what shows up, what disappears, and what returns.

Over time, Ganesh and his volunteers started noticing something unexpected: insects they thought had disappeared from Singapore were showing up here. 

One day, while rushing to work, Ganesh spotted a huge butterfly and quickly took a photo. He posted it in the Nature Society group — and the response “exploded”.

People told him it was a Clipper butterfly, a species many believed had disappeared from Singapore.

Ganesh says it may have escaped from somewhere, but what mattered to him was this: the butterfly stayed and lived out its entire two-week adult life in the garden. People even came looking for it — and managed to see it there.

To him, that’s the kind of moment the garden is full of.

He didn’t plan for it to become a community garden

Ganesh didn’t plan for it to become a community garden.

At first, it was simply a collaboration between his family and NParks. But about six months in, people began asking if they could help. Today, he estimates around 150–200 volunteers have come through.

Unlike many community gardens, there are no individual plots. No “this is yours, that is mine”. The whole space belongs to everyone.

Ganesh says that keeps the garden peaceful.

Letting nature decide

Ganesh is clear about what the garden is for: it’s for biodiversity. Ganesh also has one important rule: don’t force nature. He doesn’t introduce new species into the garden. Whatever appears has come on its own.

“If a plant can’t survive,” he says, “I might try once more. If it still doesn’t work, I stop.”

His approach is simple: respect.

The day NParks asked him to remove his plants

In the early days, the garden wasn’t officially approved.

An NParks officer once told Ganesh he might have to remove the plants because the rules didn’t allow what he was doing. Ganesh says he didn’t argue — if he had to remove them, he would.

But he also showed them what was already happening: butterflies and birds filling a small 50-square-metre area of the slope.

During that meeting, a deputy director asked him who he was planting for. Ganesh said he wasn’t planting for himself. He was planting for the community and the animals.

She asked him to email NParks and make the project official. Ganesh believes nature did most of the convincing that day.

He sold his dream car to build a pond

One of the garden’s key features today is a small pond that attracts dragonflies and damselflies. Ganesh decided to build it after a moment that stayed with him: during a drought, workers came asking for water for a nest with two chicks that were crying out.

It made him realise how easily animals lose access to water as forests and streams disappear.

The pond was expensive to build. To pay for it, Ganesh sold his dream car. He says it still makes him a little sad — but he has no regrets. To him, the animals mattered more.

“A tiny space can be powerful”

What began as a way to cope with grief has slowly become something bigger. Wildlife returns. Volunteers come and go. And small changes keep adding up. Ganesh keeps coming back to the same idea: you don’t need a huge space to make a difference.

Sometimes, a small patch of land — cared for patiently and respectfully — can become a home again.

Ready to discover more about Singapore's bio-diversity? Book your Seek Sophie Wildlife Garden Experience here!