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.