Growing winning garden

Growing the winning garden......

CW 85

This is before of CW 85, owner just moved, there were old rocks, dying plants, and many dead roots beneath the garden bed.
Just completed. little of touch up will

conclude the mini landscape.

I used a gratified lantana to add colors.

The little soil area in meant for the owner to place a clay doll, or figurines like, house, mushroom, rabbit etc.

Note, its is also good to have rocks in your landscape.

Chinese New Year Landscape

Left side of CW 109

Code No : CW 109

Chinese New Year flowering plants are used here. Owner has to replace plants later..

Code CW : 103

Code No : CW 103

Another simple landscape, easy for maintenance.

Note : rocks are vital to form a good seperation.

Close up of CW 111

Code No : CW111

Flowering plants are suitable for such landscape, however the plants may not last long. Unfortunately, in Singapore, we do not have good lasting flowering plants to last thru the years. Definately, after the Seasons, the owner needs to replace some plants..

Code No : CW 12

This is a simple one, with flowering plants.

Miniature landscapes at corporation walk..

Code No : CW 24

Partial of CW 24

Code No : CW 29
Big pebbles are used as stepping stones. Good for maintenance purpose.

Code : CW 19

A close view of the patch...
Note : grey pebbles and mini white sands are suitable for decorations.

Code : CW 19

A matured piece. However, short of some colorfully plants. Maybe some red flowers will do better.. The dill are growing well. This owner uses fish pond water to water her garden. A good idea as fish water contains good fertilizer for the plants.

Code : CW 45

Code : CW 49

Owner willing to spend and invest in an expensive plant. A Vietnamese Wrigthia (Sui Mei) is used as a central of attraction. This tree easily costs S$500.00. The theme is almost all white, but all plants are very lasting. Fertilizer is required once a month.

More Landscapes for your enjoyment..

Code : CW 30
A mondern Japanese garden..


More pebbles are used in this type of landscape. Ficus will blend well with large stones.

Code : CW 12

This is quite a simple one. It is a matter of arrangement. Simple and neat. When it is mature in 3 months time, this landscape will blend nicely with less maintenance to do.

Code No CW 51

More pebbles are used for this plot,

As there is a lamp post, a bigger large tree is used to sotfen overall look.

The Story..Some 8 months ago, I started to convert the long empty grass patch (of about 4 x 40 feet) into a neat landscape. This stretch of grass patch opposite my house was not utilized since day one. (The estate at Corporation walk is about 10 years old).

David Tan and Mr. Sim of house no 59 and no 30 respectively) joined me to work on the landscape on the empty grass patch. As we worked alongside each other, a sense of belonging took place. We all agreed to beautify the estate. Eventually, together with a few other neighbours, we helped many others to convert their side tables (Grass patch in front of the house) into nice landscape. You can see some of the completed works in my blog.

This hobby of gardening has transformed to friendship and led us to start a ‘chitchat’ corner, located at the side of house no of 32 Corporation walk. And every evening, Chinese tea, kuehs, and snacks were shared amongst the neighbours. Even potluck dinners became acommon activity there. Security has also improved, as the estate became livelier and is not quiet at all. As interest amongst the neighbours grow and more were stopping by the chitchat corner, we decided to move to a bigger area behind house no 30 Corporation walk. The owner of the house, Mr. Sim played host to us on many occasions as his kitchen is just beside our new chitchat corner. We built a BBQ pit, beautified the area and even installed some fast food style tables and chairs. You can imagine that the corner is really like a community centre to us. The spot is open to all residents of Lakeside Grove.

The Neighbourhood Committee in our estate suggested that we formed a gardening club under the NC, giving it a name "Lakeside Grove Gardening Club". The club has been formed and also duly registered with the People's association. The objective of the Gardening club is to promote "Community in Bloom" to the residents and also to promote the kampong cohesiveness amongst the neighbours in this estate.

We invited Nparks to inspect the BBQ pit and during the inspection,the officers in charge were brought around to see some of the landscape/gardens that we have helped residents to build. Because of the many outstanding result seen in this Community in Bloom project, Nparks agreed to grant us extra area to create more landscaping projects.

The Lakeside Miniature Garden
Since the inception of the club, we have constructed a Miniature Chinese and Japanese garden. I would say this piece of art is the only one in Singapore. The members of the Gardening club had used more than 1 month’s time to build the miniature garden. Some of the materials used were handpicked and flown in from Guangzhou. Members involved in the work do not have experience in such field before, but we were able to produce a beautiful art that attracted a lot of people. When the news travelled, residents from nearby estate also came and enjoyed our garden. The Nparks praised us for the outstanding effort and the result.

Minister's Visit
Photos of our gardens were sent to our MP, Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam (the Minister for Finance) for his attention. On 23 January, 10am, he will be visiting our estate and to officially open the LAKESIDE GROVE MINIATURE GARDEN. The Lakeside Grove estate at Corporation Walk is about 10 years old. Some residents have lived in this estate since iday one. Most of the residents usually stay indoors after dinner but after the establishment of the Gardening Club, the estate is now livelier and interaction are observed. We have since organized 4 BBQ gatherings, each time with about 40 residents getting together. The Kampong spirit and cohesiveness continues with more and more residents getting to know each other better forming 1 big family. We all are looking forward to the big estate reunion dinner during the coming Lunar NewYear. We would like to share with other estates about our successful story and also invite you to join us this coming 23 January for the officially opening of the miniature garden. Attached please find some of the images of the Miniature Garden for your viewing. For more photos, you can visit my blog and also for information on other landscape projects which we have done.

Lakeside Grove Miniature Chinese Garden

I want to thank my wife for the understanding, patience and care I received from her, as I used 36 days to complete the Lakeside Grove Garden.

Little monks learning kung fu from their master.

The water fall was hand made by us., using my special recipe mud with cement.

Note the two tier land. It formed a 3 D scenery.

Thanks to David Tan and Kelvin, who helped to construct the river and running the water system.

The water is being circulated. And did you manage to see some fishes?

This is Ji Gong's Residence .

The houses were specially selected and shipped from China.

This is a definate Miniature Chinese Garden. Enlarge the image for all details. Enjoy!

Bonsai Garden at Corporation Walk, Singapore

Picture No 1 : Planning a rough layout. Just behind No 30 Corporation Walk, I found this patch of grass land which was very suitable for a bonsai garden. With the help of some neighbours, I drafted a concept, an ancient Chinese scenery, something which I wanted to do for years. (A large bonsai landscape). Usually, I designed on a tray, but this time an area of about 30 x 10 feet... The small drainage line was meant to be a river running across the landscape. What you are seeing is the front view.

Picture N0 2 : Construction Work began Mr Sim, Chairman of our Gardening Club put his hands on. We used cement to form the foundation of the river. As this is a public area, we did not plan for water to be contained on the river. We built a drainage system so that water would flow away.

Picture No 3 : Forming the river David Tan, a gardening club committee member also put his hands on. Before the cement dried up, small white pebbles were paced on the side of the river. Once the structure was completed, we began planting.

Picture No 4 : arrangement Miniature trees like ficus and Wrightia ( Sui Mei) were used for this landscape. Since, this was meant to be a bonsai garden, we should not use any normal garden flowering plants. It just could not blend. Proportion is very vital to a bonsai landscape. I started to place the plants at this point.

Picture No 5 : The overall picture.

A complete section.






You should double click this picture to see the details.

At this stage, I added the little figurines and mini trees. Did you see the horses?

These pictures will speak for themselves....

Picture No 6 : A close up

Picture No 7 : Like a Suzhou Garden

This area was well blended. Two white horses were there resting, eating grass..

Please double click to enlarge images. We used bamboo sticks to make a Bridge at the far end.

This is the final piece, hope u enjoy

Side Walk @ Corporation Walk, Singapore

Welcome to Lakeside Grove Playground..
Walking along the side walk between No 32 and No 30 ( Corporation Walk )is indeed an unique experience...The 120 feet length of walk can bring you extra joy. One can see a length of well maintained landscape, with many different type of plants. Planted alongside the pathway, you can see a small chinese garden and a roll of fortune trees. A small rectangle fibre glass pond with surrounding plants is presented at the mount of the foot path.
I welcome you to take a walk with me..

Home Garden at Bukit Timah - Singapore

Before the work...

Garden soil was provided by N Parks at this Bukit Timah area ( Old landed property). I mixed the soil with organic fertilizer before planting new plants.

The left portion of the landscape. The size of this area is about 20 x 5 feet. You can see that there is a line of some small stones. These stones formed part of the decoration as they added a soft taste to the overall picture. And these stones also act as a stepping area for maintenance purpose...
I used some bright flower plants. And these plants should be trimmed regularly to maintain a balanced height. ( Not too tall )








This is the right side of the landscape.
Again, wooden fencing and rocks would make the difference. The owner helped me to reorganise the mess and we completed the job within three hours. The plants would take about a month to be stable...






After one week, the owner added some garden dolls...

Notice the growth of some plants..