A new therapeutic garden has opened at Telok Blangah Hill Park, offering a tranquil spot for visitors to enjoy a view of the forest and get up close with nature.
The Telok Blangah Hill Park Therapeutic Garden is the fifth such space by NParks. It is one of the 30 therapeutic gardens that will be established around Singapore by 2030 as part of NPark’s City in Nature vision.
Telok Blangah Hill Park Therapeutic Garden
Found next to Car Park 1, the Telok Blangah Hill Park Therapeutic Garden reflects the park’s natural forest setting. It has been designed based on scientific principles to make it easier for people to interact with nature and improve their mental well-being.
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At the Edibles Zone, plants such as basil, laksa leaf and Okinawan spinach have been planted on raised planters.
Espalier, an agricultural practice to control the growth of woody plants, has also been introduced at the Edibles zone. Special frames are used to train coffee, starfruit and limes tree to grow on a two-dimensional, flat surface.
These features make the plants at the Therapeutic Garden more accessible to the elderly and wheelchair users. This makes it easier to conduct therapeutic horticulture programmes where seniors and wheelchair users will learn how to prune and harvest the plants.
To date, more than 1,000 participants have benefited from similar programmes at the four existing therapeutic gardens, located at HortPark, Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Tiong Bahru Park and Choa Chu Kang Park, since December 2016.
Commune with Nature
Other planting zones at the 620 square metre Therapeutic Garden at Telok Blangah Hill Park include a Fragrance Zone, Colours and Textures Zone, and Biodiversity Zone.
These are intended to evoke visitors’ different senses. For example, plants like the Tree Fern and Mele Rang at the Colours and Textures Zone provide a variety of textures for visitors to touch and feel.
Benches set around a 40-metre viewing deck at the Telok Blangah Hill Park Therapeutic Garden lookout to the forest below. These provide visitors the opportunity to sit down and enjoy the verdant views.
More Therapeutic Gardens to Come
The development of the Therapeutic Garden at Telok Blangah Hill Park was supported by a contribution of around $500,000 by the Tote Board and Mr Peter Lim through the Garden City Fund.
Other therapeutic gardens are planned for parks such as Jurong Lake Gardens, Bedok Reservoir Park and Sembawang Park.
