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Showing posts with label Changi airport. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Changi airport. Show all posts

Sunday, March 23, 2014

A MOST UNUSUAL GARDEN TOUR

Back in January I had the opportunity to take a most unexpected garden tour. After all, when you go to an airport you expect to sit in the departure lounge and wait; maybe drink a cup of coffee or browse the bookstore. You do not expect to visit a garden. To do so would be a gardener's dream.


But this is Changi Airport, Singapore and they do things differently here. They even print a brochure on all the gardens you can visit. Let's see there are 5 gardens in Terminal 1, where we are waiting for our flight,  and the one I am making a bee line for is the Cactus Garden.


Cactus in Singapore? Where the humidity is shy of 100%. It must be indoors like the welcome air conditioned Dome in Garden on the Bay, which I will post about later.


Amazingly the garden is outside.


I sometimes think that you just can't go wrong when designing with agaves and cactus.


Throw in a few rocks and a few tree ferns and other ancient plants.


Maybe the odd metal sculpture like this saguaro.


Mulch with rocks and overlay with a few mat-forming sedums.


Maybe add some additional protection from the rain.


Add a few sculptures.


Is this like house leeks planted on the roofs of houses in England to ward away evil spirits?




I only had 10 minutes to rush around but if I am ever there again I will make a point of arriving with plenty of time to spare so I can visit all the gardens of Changi. In Terminal 1 additional to the Cactus Garden there is a Sculptural Tree Garden and a Lily Pad garden, Terminal 2 has a Bamboo Garden and a Sunflower Garden. Terminal 3 has a Butterfly Garden and Fern Garden. I won't even mention the pool, movie theatre etc. Who needs Duty Free!