Water Plants 

To create a water garden, pools can be variously designed depending on the space available. Nevertheless, it is not impossible to create a pond even in the smallest of gardens. As most water plants require sunlight, it is advisable to place the pond in full sunlight. Alternatively for link houses or apartments with very limited garden space container planting will be ideal.

Knowledge of the flowering habit and reproduction of water plants would be most useful in planning the water garden. In this article I will concentrate on the water plants that inhabit freshwater bodies, as these are the ones that can be exploited for garden ornamentals. There are no less than 200 species of water plants in Malaysia and most are found in freshwater bodies such as ditches, ponds, lakes and rivers. Some species recide in saline and brackish coastal waters. There are essentially three types of water plants:                           

• free-floating (floaters)                           

• partially submerged                           

• fully submerged 

Hibiscus Our National Flower 

In the tropics the beautiful Hibiscus flourish in abundance
The magnificent blooms, a symbol of significance 
In Malaysia Bunga Raya is the common name
With independence came national fame 
Though usually large and red 
Other varieties in hundreds have been bred 
In sharing one common feature of petals and sepals in fives
In a medley of colours and shapes to brighten our lives
The formation in fives symbolizes the nation's five principles 
We obey and observe these ideas as disciples 
Belief in God, loyalty to king and country 
Upholding the constitution, rule of law and good behaviour and morality
Each petal represents one principle in its entity 
Five fused together at the base to maintain unity
At sunset the blossoms drop and fade away 
Comes dawn and new blooms to start the day 
Hibiscus of numerous varieties have gained great popularity 
Soon our capital Kuala Lumpur will become the Hibiscus City
Truly signifying the land of great diversity and beauty 
This heritage must surely be preserved for posterity 

My Say: Nature vs Malls 

Many new buildings have mushroomed all over the city recently. Most of the buildings are but just to satisfy  the shopping craze that has hit town just recently. Mobs of people race into shopping malls like herds of  wildebeests. They go there to enjoy the comfort of air-conditioning.  There are shops galore and state of the art cinemas  that show all the latest movies and have top-notch sound  systems. All these of course, as IÕve said before, attract  mobs of people.
Congestion of malls is the immediate result and these buildings are choked full of people. Trying to get a  single parking space is mind boggling. I donÕt know  about you, but even though I'm not the one driving,  I still get frustrated when my family does not get a  parking space.

KITCHEN GARDEN 

In  our first issue, details of herbs we used in our dishes  were described briefly together with their planting  requirements. We had many requests from readers for  a herb gardening section to be included, so we are now  starting our Kitchen Garden as part of our garden spread.  We will start with designing our Herb Kitchen Garden  in our backyard! It would also be fun to include the  herbs you need in some parts of your main garden. Growing  them in pots also would be a convenient alternative  to save space and for mobility. The design shows one  of the many shapes a kitchen garden can take depending  on the space available