Walking Path, Cement and Pebble Blocks

When I did my house renovation, I wanted to have some unique features and came up with a walking pathway made of cement and printed with Papaya Leaves.  The effect was very nice and quite simple to do.  I requested the Indonesian worker to make the cement block and I printed the Papaya Leaves.  It was like a art and craft session :-)
 

Walking path with imprints of Papaya Leaves

Inside garden with walking path.  These were completed with pebbles.

Blocks with pebbles and Papaya Leaves imprint

Walking path cement block with Papapa Leaves, just completed

Completed Job!

My Masterpiece

There is a small rectangle piece of land in the porch.   For months, it has been redundant and I took a looooong time, trying to figure the best way to have a simple, no maintenance and a joy to the eyes.


Cement it?


Noooooooooooooooooooo!


That is probably the last thing I want to do... but... The downside...I don't like weeding and cutting.


I also hate the 'jungle' concept.  Whereby all the plants grow well, together with weeds.



So, I took the time to think and design something which is uniquely me.  No!  The concept is not called Weird.   Its  Simple and Nice - with a touch of 'little to no maintenance' as inspiration.


The Frangipani plant was the first to go into The Masterpiece whilst I continued to think further....

Frangipani and sand

Then, I visited Sg. Buloh and they have everything you need to fit into a garden.  I bought plants, plants and more plant.   And even more plants.  Obsession??  I don't know what you are talking about.


I visited nursery after nursery for days.  I bought Philippine grass, bamboos, stones, plants, pots.... Well, somebody's gotta to help these people... Do you know how many of them are there??!!!    How do they keep up the business?  Probably with people like me who 'kills' cactus.


Obsession???  I still don't know what you are talking about.


Anyways.


I bought stones.  Many different types.

Small purple stones from Philippines

Aquarium purple stones

Orange colored stones from Thailand, I think

Shells collected from a beach in Thailand

The sandy ground was laid with black plastics which was recycled after I laid the Philippine Grass.  Its to stop the weeds from growing under the stones.  

After planting more plants and laying the stones. And now it looks like this 

Upon completion

Why are you looking so sad today?

Mama tortoise

Tortoise can be opened up and candles put inside

Baby tortoise

Little dino

There is very little I need to do for The Masterpiece other than daily watering.  Little weeding now and then but other than that, its pretty easy.  I am glad I went with stones.   But unfortunately not all stones are good to have.  I have seen the white ones and they eventually have lots of green algae growing on it.  

 

BEFORE

AFTER

Landscape on the Outside

I was planting the Philippine Grass almost to completion and realised that it was not enough for the outside.  Great job on planning *pat myself on the back*  and then *roll eyes*.


Rather than getting the Indonesian worker to come back again, I decided that the remaining pieces gets split up.

Initial look similar to patchwork

AFTER 2 months

BEFORE View from another angle

AFTER 2 months

A hilly landscape was done due to convenience.  I had extra soil dug up from inside the house compound and didn't want to get another truck to clear it.  It turned out perfect.  Giving the plain looking landscape a difference.

BEFORE

AFTER

Plants put randomly and then black plastics were laid at the bottom and then covered with dried leaves. Its just to stop weeds from growing.  I saved the black plastics from the Philippine Grass and recycled them.  Very useful indeed.

I didn't have the time to do more landscape for the plants near the coconut tree, yet.  I really abhor the ugly looking bricks.  But that was the best I could do to make it look neat enough, for the moment.  I am in the midst of making cute little wooden fence.  I will get on it once I get my butt out of this chair infront of the computer!

When will I get to taste you, my little delicious Nam Dok Mai manggo?   No, don't be pressured, take your time to grow and fruit... Right about next week will do fine...  *pat pat rub rub*

Portulaca Grandiflora, (Moss-rose Purslane or Moss-rose)  in the middle of the 'hill'.  I used to call it Japanese Rose but I discovered its scientific name from one of the blog I visited.  Its amazing how ignorant I am with names of plants *sheepish*.  Infact, I don't know most of the names of my plants. But. I do know the names of my sons.