Minimal Look, Maximum Work

Source : The Straits Times, Feb 23, 2008

A minimalist garden may be easy on the eye but can require lots of maintenance

YOU might not realise this, but having a minimalist garden does not usually mean minimal maintenance.

GARDEN OF DELIGHT: Mr Chua's modern take on a traditional tea garden with a pavilion in the centre surrounded by rills of water. -- PHOTOS: KELVIN CHUA

In fact, because of its stark lines and austere nature, even small imperfections such as dead leaves or a small growth of weed catch the eye immediately, thus ruining the garden's immaculate precision.

The result: constant tidying up bordering on obsessive fanaticism or a never- ending source of frustration.

Garden designer Kelvin Chua knows all about this.

In 2006, as part of his final-year project at Unitec, a technology institute in Auckland, he submitted a design for the Ellerslie International Flower Show in New Zealand.

It consisted of three steel cages of planting suspended on steel legs over a black reflecting pool and lit by fluorescent tube lights.

'The plan was clean lines and the illusion of effortless simplicity,' says Mr Chua, who was born in Singapore and moved to New Zealand at the age of five with his family.

'The reality was the lights attracted swarms of insects which were fried by the heat of the lamps and dropped dead into the water.

'So, twice a day, I had to wade into the pool and fish out all the dead bugs with a net.'

Despite the, uh, bugs in the design, his garden went on to win a gold award plus an award for lighting. It also won him a Young Designer of the Year prize.

Now 32, he lectures at Unitec's School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture.

He was in town recently to check out plants and materials ahead of the Singapore Garden Festival in July, where he has been invited to take part in the Fantasy Gardens category.

He describes his personal style as strong lines and angles softened with lush and naturalistic planting.

'A thick and mixed palette of plants also helps hide any gaps or deficiencies once plants pass their prime or during a fallow period,' he says.

'And while many minimalist gardens feature mainly evergreens or foliage plants, which are less subject to seasonal changes, I like using flowering plants because then you get to experience the life of the garden through the seasons instead of seeing the same thing all the time.'