The hunt for green spaces in Jakarta often ends in the slate-gray of paving blocks or concrete structures, but some residents, refusing to give in to the drabness of the urban landscape, have built their very own green oases close to home.
Residents of community unit (RW) 3 in Kwitang, Central Jakarta, for instance, often spend their afternoons with stacks of potted plants or patches of grass, peeking through the asphalt.
"It's our own initiative," says Asmiati, the coordinator of the garden caretakers.
She adds the residents don't get any special funding from the local authorities to run the garden.
"Sometimes I use my salary as head of the community group to buy a new plant, but that's all," she says.
The residents, especially the women, take turns watering the little neighborhood garden.
Previously, the garden was an unattended patch of shrubs, but the residents then paved it over before getting several potted plants.
"I actually wanted to grow grass here, but then cats *in the area* would use it as their toilet," Asmiati says.
The pint-sized patches may just be a sight for sore eyes in the concrete jungle that is the capital.
However, they do not necessarily play a large part in the local ecosystems, such as serving as water catchment areas or providing significant amounts of oxygen.
"Those are just green patches made for the sake of having green patches by residents who are concerned with the environment," says Jakarta Parks and Cemeteries Agency head Ery Basworo.
Nirwono Joga, from the Indonesian Landscape Architecture Study Group, says these kinds of gardens are made more to soothe the eye rather than serve any practical function.
"Potted plants are not effective as water catchments," he points out.
He says medium-sized parks of 200 to 500 square meters are better suited as water catchment areas.
Such parks do exist in the capital's neighborhoods, and are called taman interaktif or "interactive parks".
"Interactive parks are usually located in densely populated areas, and they cater to those in the lower economic bracket," Ery says.
"They're places where residents meet and interact with each other."
Nevertheless, the "interactive" function sometimes collides with the green concept, with many such parks consisting more of paving than grass.
"The ideal park *to serve as a green space* should have big trees and grass beneath," Joga says.
"To pave the ground around the base of a tree is just to torture the tree."
Most interactive parks in Jakarta are dominated by sports fields or paving.
One example is the park in the Palmerah neighborhood of West Jakarta. Only the edges and corners of the park are lined with trees and grass.
Moreover, the park is now dilapidated, with the grass dried out, the paving cracked and the fences broken.
Kudrat, head of the neighborhood's environment section, says the parks were built by the parks and cemeteries agency.
"Some of the parks are maintained by the agency and some by the residents," he says.
The residents say the task of maintaining the park is too hard, especially without extra funding for the purpose.
Zainuri, wife of the head of RW 13 in Palmerah, West Jakarta, says the unit doesn't get funding from the agency, which it badly needs to maintain the park.
"The RW heads usually have to ask for money *for maintenance* from the food vendors near the park," she says.
Ery says his agency already has its hands full without having to get involved in maintaining the park.
"We leave it up to the residents to maintain the park, such as watering it," he says.
"Sometimes we can help, but the city authorities already have a lot of other issues to deal with."
Thus the management of the "interactive" parks is thrust upon the residents, who find it a challenge.
"Watering is tricky," says Asmiati in Kwitang.
"Sometimes we can't get water from the pump, and the water from the water company turns the leaves red, so I just water the plants with gutter water. Surprisingly, the plants thrive on that!" (dis)
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