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City, Garden Stories

Garden Stories: Ganesh Kumar of Woodlands Botanical Garden

Known as Woodlands Botanical Garden, this award-winning community garden is situated on a hillside in Marsiling spanning 2500m2 over 9 storeys. Furnished with more than 200 varieties of plants, this is a wonderland for birds, bees, butterflies and other garden inhabitants. The good news is it is open round the clock to the public for visits.

Officially launched in July 2020, this showstopping garden is tended to by Woodlands Botanical Garden Chairman Ganesh, his father and a team of around 20 residents. Together they plant, prune, build garden structures and undertake general garden tasks, including feeding the budgerigars who have their own enclosure on the premises.   

Even though this garden was established not long ago, it has already won three awards, including Garden of Year 2022. Flowers that can be found here include roses, Melastoma, Tecoma, Plumbago, Crossandra, Chalicevine, Musical Notes plant and a wide variety of Hibiscus.

Thanks to the diversity of plants and the community garden’s approach to stewarding the garden, visitors are treated to day-long sightings of bees, butterflies, birds, dragonflies and other pollinators. The pond has helped attract more wildlife to the garden, in addition, Ganesh believes in letting nature take its course, and does not intervene when caterpillars and snails make a meal of the plants.

Ganesh has built a few gardens throughout the years, beginning with his grandfather’s garden, a community garden in Hougang, followed by a garden in one of NTU’s halls, where he was the residential mentor. With this garden, he hopes that it can serve as a mental wellness garden for others to enjoy.

Read on to find out more about Ganesh and Woodlands Botanical Garden.

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Woodlands Botanical Garden
Woodlands Botanical Garden Singapore

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City

Singapore Gardening Society visit to an Ewart Park residence

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Some month’s back, I attended a garden visit organised by Singapore Gardening Society in the Ewart Park area. I love attending their gatherings, especially when it involves visitations to private gardens and plant sales. This one in particular was three years in the making, due to schedule conflicts, and the stars had finally aligned.

The property is a sprawling 50,000 sq ft, with a large area dedicated to greenery, and as you will see in these photos, they really love their plants! They have a lovely green wall, and have incorporated green features inside and out. I found the property very soothing on the senses and loved the diversity of plants all around.DSCF4507

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Uncategorized

Upcycling Dead Vines into a Natural Tray

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Lots of people love the Blue Pea flower and grow the plant on their corridors, in community gardens and home gardens. Once the plant dies, its vines are off to the compost heap or trash bin, which is such a waste. It can be turned into a tray, basket, screening, and a barrier for the garden. Grape vines, grasses, fruit tree stems, and banana leaves can also be used.

My Blue Pea plant was lush and grew against my (hideous) chain-linked fence for some months, I was quite sad when it died but I also knew that I could give it a second life as a tray for garden harvests. I was inspired by this video on Gardening Australia. Subsequently, I had a look on YouTube for other basket weaving ideas.

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City

Singapore Gardening Society visit to Mr Tan Wee Lee & Mrs Rosalind Tan’s garden

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Over the weekend, I attended the Singapore Gardening Society (SGS)’s February meet up, I try my best to make it when I’m in town. This time, we visited Mr Tan Wee Lee and Mrs Rosalind Tan garden, which has previously received a Community in Bloom award. They were wonderful hosts, sharing knowledge about their garden, and ensuring society members were well fed.

All visitors were greeted by this majestic 50-year old Elephant Ear Fig Tree, abundant with fruit. Mrs Tan said that she cooks the figs with chicken soup, and that making tea from the leaves of this species is supposedly good for diabetes. I heard Mr Tan saying that in order to have a tree like that, one needs to shape it as such. He’s a bonsai enthusiast, as you will see later on.

Even though it was an unbearably hot day, their front garden is well shaded by this tree, and well cooled by their pond. The difference in temperature was remarkable, and made it a very comfortable experience.

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