Makeover for a Detached House

The garden we are helping to makeover this time is a detached house with a reasonably large garden. The owners have always maintained their wish to keep the lawns clear of plantings. The owner has bought and lined the garden walls with a white plastic picket fencing to get a neat cottage garden look. The house has a high wall around the compound hiding the garden from the outside, but the view from the house needs to be enhanced with plantings.

We will run the designs in two issues – dividing the garden into sections. This issue shows the view that greets visitor through the front gate entrance. The opposite view from the lawn is also illustrated. The recommended plants are as on the list.

Gula Melaka Candy (coklat 'nnisan)

Keeping with the palm theme, we at Garden Asia have looked to simple yet tantalizing recipes to whet our appetite, not to mention our sweet teeth! The lure of these childhood ‘kampung’ snacks is the use of simple, natural ingredients related to the palm, such as coconut milk, santan, sago flour and palm sugar in the form of ‘gula melaka’. We hope you have as much fun making and eating them as we did!

Ingredients

200g groundnuts
8 pieces gula melaka (palm sugar)
1 packet (400ml) coconut milk (santan)
100g sesame seeds
a pinch of salt
a greased container/dish
20-30 squares of non-sticky coloured paper lined with grease proof paper