I got my hands on an interesting pamphlet from the librarian after I finished my Mandarin gardening talk at the Possibility Room last Saturday. The pamphlet featured the new garden walks that visitors can register and then go to learn more about the highrise gardens located within the National Library Building.
When I first saw the planting schemes at the National Library Building a few years ago, I was quite impressed with the beautiful tropical gardens that have been created. I was also amazed then as I saw many sensitive tropical plants that are well known to hate being located in a drafty location are used as landscaping candidates in these gardens. Many of these can still be seen growing quite happily and blooming profusely despite being harrassed by the winds that blow through these highrise gardens!
The landscaped gardens were actually created to help maintain a cool environment for the new National Library Building. The National Library Building has a total 14 gardens and vegetation forms 35% of the total site area. The National Library Board was awarded the platinum Green Mark Award in 2005 for its excellent greening and environmentally-friendly work.
This garden tour would be good for anyone who wants to get some ideas to landscape his/her garden. The gardens in the National Library building are quite well-done and aesthetically-appealling and one should bring along a camera and snap as many pictures as he/she can. Do try to capture pictures of how plants are combined in a landscape that pleases your eyes as these will help you in coming up with your own gardenscape at home. Also note down the names of the plants, if any, that you like along the way and if not, snap pictures of them as that will help to let the nurseryman know what you want to buy when you are at the nursery.
