Great New Places

The Istana has launched a lovely Inclusive Garden within its premise. The Istana Inclusive Garden is home to over 100 plant species and has paved paths to make it both wheelchair and elderly friendly. The Istana is normally not opened to the public unless there is official open house days on certain national holidays.

35 Orchard Road, The Istana

Email: istana_feedback@istana.gov.sg

Photo Credit to Nature Guide Singapore FB Page and Mr Jack Yam

The National Parks Board (NParks) opens Marsiling Park, formerly known as Woodlands Town Garden, after 22 months of enhancement works. As a result of close consultation with the community during the design process, the park now offers a range of new day and night experiences for visitors to enjoy. Enhancements have also been sensitively made to the mangrove area to allow visitors to get closer to nature as well as for biodiversity to thrive.

With its lush greenery and peaceful ambience, Marsiling Park is an oasis of calm and tranquillity. The park features activity areas and amenities for visitors of all ages.

Visitors can enjoy the view of the picturesque pond from the viewing tower or the boardwalks, especially in the evening, as the lighting is curated to leverage on the reflections on the water body to create a special illumination effect.

The one of a kind butterfly-shaped playground with climbing ropes provides children with a challenging play experience while the Fun Play area has play equipment with musical elements for an interactive play experience.

Nature-lovers will appreciate the butterfly-attracting plants and educational interpretive boards that have been introduced around the playground, as well as the enhanced mangrove habitat along the western edge of the park.

There are also several spaces for community activities, such as the activity plaza and the amphitheatre, which features a rain garden. Visitors can also enjoy refreshments at the F&B outlet in the park, which is open 24 hours daily.

Read more about the park here.

Want to know what goes on inside a Community in Bloom (CIB) Community Garden here in Singapore? At the Leng Kee CC Sky Community Garden, there are more than 60 species of edibles, ornamental and biodiversity-enhancing plants at its newly renovated rooftop! The Women Executive Committee (WEC) helps to maintain this community garden and regularly harvests herbs and spices for cooking demonstrations in their community kitchen next to the garden. The food is then shared with interest groups and members of the public.

Put your horticulture skills to good use and contribute to the unique green ambience of Singapore through Nparks' ‘Community In Bloom’ programme!

Launched in May 2005 and first carried out at Mayfair Park Estate, the Community in Bloom nationwide gardening movement aims to foster a community spirit and bring together residents, both young and old, to make Singapore our garden. Today, CIB has close to 1,000 community gardens across Singapore that have engaged over 20,000 residents.

Jurong Lake Gardens West focuses on nature, play and the community. It is currently under construction. When it opens in 2019, the public will be able to see a restored swamp forest and wetlands, a nature-themed play area, allotment gardens, lifestyle and sports facilities, and F&B options.

One of the key design concepts for Jurong Lake Gardens West is the Heron Island.

Herons are among the wildlife living in the Jurong Lake area. Platforms will be installed on Heron Island to encourage roosting and nesting, away from human disturbance. Enhancing habitats for wildlife and keeping the tranquility of the area are key considerations in the development of Jurong Lake Gardens West, enabling visitors to enjoy nature and biodiversity.

Children can look forward to Forest Ramble, a nature-themed play area that will capture their fascination for plants and animals. Forest Ramble will comprise varied adventure play experiences for children to mimic the actions of animals – from crawling through a “squirrel’s nest” to gliding through a tree canopy.

The new entrance pavilion at the north carpark will serve as an arrival point to introduce visitors to the Gardens. The multiple columns of the pavilion are inspired by the hanging aerial roots of the many Ficus trees found within the Gardens.

NParks developed and curated the St John’s Island Trail to encourage public appreciation for its rich biodiversity and the history of St John’s Island and Sisters’ Islands Marine Park. The trail is part of NParks’ outreach initiatives on marine biodiversity under NParks’ Nature Conservation Masterplan, which consolidates Singapore’s biodiversity conservation efforts to help achieve Singapore’s City in a Garden vision.

The 2.8 km St John’s Island Trail comprises 15 stations marked with signboards that serve as both station markers and educational resources, highlighting the diversity of flora and fauna as well as the island’s colourful history.

St John’s Island is rich in local history. Since 1604, the island was marked on explorers’ maps. The island was planted extensively with crops in the mid-19th century, before it became a quarantine centre. In 1948, parts of the island were converted into a detention centre for political prisoners such as C. V. Devan Nair, who later became Singapore’s third President. From the 1970s onwards, the island has been mainly used for recreation and is popular with beach-goers and picnickers. Today, it serves as a base for marine research.

When you are on the island, try spotting Singapore’s tallest bird (1.15 m), the Great-billed Heron. It uses its dagger-like bill to spear large fish. This species is locally critically-endangered due to habitat loss.

Jurong Lake Gardens (JLG) is envisioned to be Singapore’s new national gardens in the heartlands, a people’s garden for leisure and recreation, and a model for sustainability in green development.

The 90-hectare gardens will comprise JLG West, JLG Central and JLG East. JLG West is currently undergoing development, and is scheduled to be completed in 2018. JLG Central and JLG East will be completed from 2020 onwards.

You can begin to enjoy JLG West from 2018! Look out for a meandering boardwalk that will bring people closer to nature, a nature-themed play area for kids, and a community lifestyle and water sports facility for activities such as kayaking and dragon boating.

JLG will be the first national gardens in the heartlands. It will complement two existing world-class national gardens – Singapore Botanic Gardens (SBG) and Gardens by the Bay (GB). SBG’s strength lies in its botanical emphasis, research and heritage value, whilst GB’s strength is in its themed gardens and sustainability efforts. JLG’s focus is to be a people’s garden accessible to all segments of the community.

JLG will be a unique leisure and recreation destination amongst the other major parks including East Coast Park, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and Pasir Ris Park, and is strategically located to serve the western region of Singapore.

JLG is a vital green infrastructure that contributes to Jurong Lake District’s vision to be ‘a leading model for Singapore in developing a mixed-use urban district that is sustainable, smart and connected’. It will feature sustainable design systems and smart technologies that enable sustainable operation.

Nature reserves are protected areas of rich biodiversity that are representative sites of key indigenous ecosystems. To safeguard the native flora and fauna in these areas, there are special restrictions on the activities that can be carried out.

As part of a holistic conservation approach, some nature parks have been established on the margins of the Nature Reserves to act as green buffers.

The National Parks Board (NParks) has unveiled plans for a new 67-hectare Rifle Range Nature Park, which will serve as the southern buffer park for Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and is expected to be completed in 2020

The 67-hectare Rifle Range Nature Park is located at the southern end of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. As a buffer park, Rifle Range Nature Park will help to reduce visitorship pressure on Bukit Timah Nature Reserve by providing interesting alternative venues for the public to enjoy nature-related activities.

Being next to the nature reserve, Rifle Range Nature Park provides complementary forest habitat for biodiversity from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Surveys indicate that native flora species growing in the nature reserve can be seen at the fringe of the nature park. Visitors may be able to chance upon native fauna species such as the Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica) and Horsfield’s Flying Squirrel (Lomys horsfieldii). Native crabs, frogs, fishes and snakes can also be seen in the slow-flowing sandy streams.

Visitors will be able to experience the canopies of a regenerating secondary forest through a Sky Garden. It is an elevated walkway that provides a seamless experience from Beauty World to the Sin Seng Quarry.

The former Sin Seng Quarry will be sensitively enhanced to support the rich biodiversity in the area. The quarry was once one of the deepest quarries in Singapore (55 metres at its deepest point), but has since been backfilled. It will be transformed into a freshwater habitat with alook-out point for visitors to appreciate marsh birds.

Hiking trails with varying levels of difficulty will also be added to give visitors a chance to learn more about the history of quarrying in Singapore and the heritage highlights within the site.

Aerial rope bridges across Rifle Range Road will be provided to allow animals to move safely between Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Rifle Range Nature Park. The first such bridges in Singapore, they aim to restore the ecological connection between the two forest habitats.

Located off Venus Drive at the Upper Thomson area, the 75-hectare Windsor Nature Park is a green buffer for the Central Catchment Nature Reserve.

Visitors can explore new trails including the specially curated Hanguana Trail and the Drongo Trail. The Hanguana Trail is lined with rare native plants, some of which are named after Singapore. The Drongo Trail features a sub-canopy walk where visitors can catch a glimpse of the fauna that are found under the canopy level, in addition to examining the understorey of the regenerating secondary forest.

Discover other highlights of Windsor Nature Park such as a marsh habitat and several freshwater streams by hiking on the restored trails and new boardwalks. Visitors can also join workshops to learn about Singapore’s natural heritage and ongoing biodiversity conservation efforts at the visitor pavilion.

Coney Island serves as a weekend getaway for all nature lovers, promoting an exhilarating experience for learning and fun.

Coney Island, formerly known as Pulau Serangoon, is a 50-hectare island situated off the north-east region of Singapore, currently covered with lush vegetation with vast biodiversity. It remained uninhabited because it was an important locations for migratory birds, including even endangered species.

TAG : Walks