Looking for a space to nurture your green fingers? NParks provides allotment gardening plots at various parks for anyone who wishes to have their own space to garden.
Allotment gardens offer plots of land to individuals to rent for growing their own plants. Following the initial success of the pilot scheme at HortPark, new allotment gardening plots will be introduced in 10 more parks islandwide over the next two years. By 2019, more than 1,000 allotment garden plots will be available to the community.
Each allotment plot consists of a 2.5 m x 1 m raised planter bed, and can be leased for three years at a charge of $57/year (excluding GST).
Three historical gardens will be recreated as part of efforts to restore the rich heritage of Fort Canning Park and its surroundings. The three gardens within and around Fort Canning Park make up the heritage landscapes of Fort Canning Hill, and include Singapore’s first botanic garden. The National Parks Board (NParks) will create these gardens as part of sensitive enhancements to Fort Canning Park to emphasise Fort Canning’s historical features. Enhancements will be accompanied by the introduction of a greater variety of education and outreach programmes, and enhanced accessibility to the park.
Fort Canning Centre will also be repurposed as a gallery for visitors to learn more about the history of the hill and its surroundings. Members of the public are invited to volunteer at park programmes and give suggestions on the upcoming enhancements.
As one of Singapore’s two National Parks, Fort Canning Park is deeply rooted in history, from the time of the 14th century kings to the founding of modern Singapore. The enhancements will highlight the significance of Fort Canning Hill and retrace the history of Singapore across the 14th, 19th and 20th centuries.
The heritage landscapes of Fort Canning Hill and its surroundings will be restored and weaved seamlessly into Fort Canning Park with the creation of three gardens, namely the Royal Garden, the First Botanic Garden, and Jubilee Park.
The First Botanic Garden, which was established by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1822 to also serve as an experimental garden, will extend from Fort Canning Park onto the streetscapes of roads bounded by Hill Street, Victoria Street, Bras Basah Road, Handy Road and Canning Rise. As part of the First Botanic Garden, a large part of Armenian Street will be pedestrianised and turned into a park featuring plants that were introduced as economic crops for the spice trade, food and horticulture. Economic crops such as nutmeg were cultivated in the First Botanic Garden before they were propagated across Singapore in the 1800s. The new park at Armenian Street is part of a multi-agency effort by URA, NParks, PUB, LTA, NHB and NAC in close collaboration with stakeholders within the vicinity to create new vibrant public spaces that visitors can enjoy. The new park at Armenian Street and wider sidewalks along Coleman Street will also enable visitors to walk comfortably from Armenian Street to Civic District, linking Fort Canning Park, Bras Basah.Bugis and the Civic District together into an expanded arts, cultural and heritage district.
NParks is also planning a greater variety of education and outreach programmes, including re-curation of existing heritage trails of the 14th and 19th centuries. These trails will be enhanced to interpret the rich history of Fort Canning Park and feature new nodes. The 14th century trail will feature the Forbidden Spring or Pancur Laranganwhich is believed to be the bathing site of the royals. The refreshed 19th century trail will feature the restored Raffles Garden and Farquhar Garden, which will showcase plants collected and documented by Sir Stamford Raffles and Singapore’s First Resident William Farquhar through their botanical explorations.
“Jubilee Park” will be restored where the King George V Jubilee Park was originally located at the junction of River Valley Road and Clemenceau Avenue. The park will avail more outdoor family-friendly venues for arts and culture activities in a garden setting. New amenities will include play features, a landscaped theatre and an event lawn.
Find out more about this restoration project here.
The Therapeutic Garden at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park is situated near the pond gardens and was launched on 19 September 2017.
Therapeutic Gardens are outdoor gardens designed to meet the physical, psychological and social needs of park users, incorporating design principles derived from scientific evidence.
Together with therapeutic horticulture programmes involving plants and nature, visitors can experience a range of health benefits such as the relief of mental fatigue, reduced stress and an overall improvement to emotional well-being.
The garden is specially designed to engage the senses with a landscape of plants divided into four zones: Fragrance zone, Biodiversity zone, Edibles and Medicinal zone and Colours and Textures zone.
The 900sqm Therapeutic Garden at Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park has design elements and user-friendly features to meet the needs of the elderly, including those with conditions such as dementia. It also provides respite for visitors of all ages.
The greenery and sensory aspects in the garden will provide visitors with a rehabilitative environment, providing relief from attention fatigue and stress. This is complemented by an outdoor activity area where therapeutic horticulture programmes will be carried out. Each session is about 1.5 hours and the activities are designed to stimulate participants’ senses and memories through nature interaction, and to encourage motor and hand-eye coordination.
Located near various eldercare and senior activity centres, the 750sqm Therapeutic Garden @ Tiong Bahru Park is designed to be elderly-friendly. It provides a holistic rehabilitative environment for conditions including dementia. The Garden also helps to relieve stress and brings restorative effects to the mental well-being of visitors of all ages.
The design elements in Therapeutic Garden @ Tiong Bahru Park are similar to the garden in HortPark. It has a simple and clear garden layout, seats facing different directions to provide various views, and the profusion of plants with colour, texture and scents to stimulate the senses. An area specifically designed for gardening with customised benches for potting makes it more convenient for the elderly and wheelchair users to participate in gardening, which improves their health and mental well-being.
The Garden also has raised planter beds of two heights to cater to different groups of visitors. The raised planter beds at a lower height encourages wheelchair users to interact with plants and flowers, while the taller raised planter beds enables seniors who have difficulty bending to do gardening while standing.
A rich variety of plants has been arranged in different zones to evoke visitors’ senses as they move along the pathway.
With more than 100 species of native plants on-site, the enhanced Native Garden @ HortPark by The National Parks Board (NParks) has the highest concentration of native plants, including edibles, shrubs and trees, in a single location in Singapore.
The Garden aims to promote the use of native plants in gardens and will provide visitors with a wealth of information on their uses (for food, medicine and timber), how they support native fauna, how they can be used in landscapes, and how to grow them.
The Native Garden features different landscapes that showcase native plants in their various natural habitats, and demonstrates how native plant species can be effectively used for urban landscaping. Aiming to provide an immersive experience, visitors will be able to see the Lasia spinosa in its native aquatic habitat, and the Lumnitzera littorea in its native mangrove habitat. These landscapes also provide habitats for fauna. In the rainforest zone, the running water from a man-made stream and the use of a combination of logs and rocks help to mimic a rainforest habitat conducive for insects, small mammals, reptiles and birds.
Visitors will also be able to explore the five zones where plants are categorised based on how they are used – as medicine, food, timber or to enhance habitats for birds and butterflies. Rare species such as the Nephelium maingayi, which has edible fruits that resemble hairless rambutans and taste like rambutans, can be found in the Food Zone, while the Knema globularia, which is found in the Bird Zone, has fruits that are eaten by the Oriental Pied Hornbill.
Home lifestyle destination, HomesToLife, from Singapore-based leather tanner and sofa manufacturer HTL International, is set to open a new flagship store.
The new HomesToLife flagship store is a one-stop shop solution which provides a special curation of home lifestyle brands and collections all under one roof. With a portfolio exceeding 20 International living, dining and bedding brands, consumers are guaranteed to find products that fit their style and purchasing power as well as almost everything they need in their home.
HomesToLife has been designed aiming to change the experience of furniture shopping to make it beyond a buying process, rather, a process of discovery.
Supermama is many things at once – a store, an artist residency studio, a platform for designers, a space for people to escape to – but it is at its core a labor of love.
The independent purveyor of all-things quirky and local has come a long way from it's hole-in-the-wall digs in a rickety shophouse and now, they have opened their second outlet at the Esplanade Mall, with another launch at Beach Road come March.
The goods sold here are pretty similar to its flagship at the Singapore Art Museum, so you'll still find home decor items and the store's signature ceramic ware featuring graphics of Singapore icons.
Bottle Tree Park has re-opened as Orto, one of the largest privately-operated leisure parks in Singapore, covering 51,500 sqm of land in the Northern area of the island.
A treasured green lung bearing an interesting collection of tropical greenery, beds of colorful shrubs and boulders with a beautiful, scenic lake. ORTO introduces an eco-learning journey with a rich array of plants and trees. Embark on a learning escapade into nature and retreat into the fauna and flora experience with a botanical stroll.
Take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday life, relax and unwind under the glorious sunshine and summer breeze. ORTO is easily accessible and conveniently located and extensive recreational and social-friendly activities in the park such as prawning, fishing and futsal makes it an ideal place for family and social gatherings. ORTO also features outdoor event venues such as The Lakehouse and The Promenade for school activities, family functions, wedding receptions, corporate events, product launches, and seminars.
The rustic yet elegant feel of the park presents a unique dining setting in this modern, urban city. Delight your senses with the serene ambience, delectable menus and gracious service in a medley of restaurants and cafes beside the lake. From scrumptious seafood to fusion cuisines, light bites or seated dining, ORTO has it all.
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