For most property owners, landscaping is often an afterthought. Once all the high gloss tiles have been laid and customised kitchen cabinets fitted in, there is little time or money to go beyond calling in a rag tag team of labourers to put in some grass and “plant a few trees here and there”.

Perhaps it’s simply a lack of knowledge on how a few simple touches in the garden can work wonders to any property. But at the bare minimum you only need some decent topsoil, some nice looking trees and shrubs, and most importantly some good landscaping advice. All this should cost you no more than 5% of your total construction budget.

In fact, if you do it in a manner that is sensitive to the sustainability of the planet, you might even be able to do it for less. Indeed, there is increasingly a new breed of property owners who wants to go beyond aesthetics and consider the environment in their home conversions.

One way to do this is to use reclaimed materials and discarded plants that can be mixed and matched as shown in the examples pictured.

In the first picture, abandoned railway sleepers, crushed granite rocks and plants were mixed to create a living footpath in the balcony of a condominium in Bangsar.  The best thing about this landscape is that every single one of the elements used was once discarded and all it took was some imagination to put them together to transform a once empty, deserted, space.

While old sleepers may not be easy to get hold of, crushed granite can often be found abandoned at construction sites. If you do manage to get your hands on the sleepers, or any pieces of flat, old timber, add a bit of soil into the nooks and crannies. Making sure that the roots of the plants are intact, gently push them into the soil. You should water the plants right after that and add in a bit more soil to compact it in. Plants are natural survivors. Just look at how trees literally grow from cracks in walls.

In the picture on the right, a frangipani has been replanted in a “Shanghai Jar” in the same condominium to provide some depth and perspective to the once bare floor. The sight will be made even prettier once it starts to flower!

Shanghai jars and plants are usually found when people move house and unfortunately discard them as they are too difficult to carry.

Indeed, there is no one place to look for reusable plants and materials, but the important thing is to keep a watchful eye and have a bag and some gloves ready.

And you don’t have to be restricted to tiny plants in your efforts to green your property. Whole trees can be brought back from the dead and nurtured back to life. All it takes is some good soil, light, regular fertilising and watering, and perhaps a green soul. Nature will do the rest.