I've been working on the designs for a garden since the end of last year, for a beautiful old house high up on the ridge of Berea. I've driven past the house quite often in the past, and wondered when or if it would ever be renovated.
Last year, the owners of a guest house down the road took on the honourable task of restoring it to its original beauty. From white ant nests in the walls (which were held together in some places not with cement, but hard clay), to leaking roofs - I'm not sure if they realised the amount of work that was in store for them when they began. But they've taken to the task admirably, with the deadline of being ready for the 2010 World Cup looming.
My clients were incredibly trusting, and have allowed me quite a bit of freedom with the design of the garden. I felt obligated to make sure that the garden was a suitable adornment to the soon-to-be renovated house.
There were 2 main areas to the garden - the front entrance/parking area, and the back garden. I started with the design of the back area. This was the largest area, and I felt that this area would influence the design of the rest of the garden.
My first thoughts were that the garden needed to be terraced to make it more usable. A slope, even just a slight one can make it hard to use an area, so I prefer to level out a space to make it more inviting, and at the same time, allow it to be have multiple uses.
I also felt that because this back garden area was quite low down and there were no real views to make use of, the garden should be inward rather than outward looking.
The ideal way to do this would be to create a central focal point, and possibly screen the outside views with hedging, creating something close to a cloister garden.
The other aspect to bear in mind is that the garden will be viewed from above almost or more often than from inside. So it would be necessary to create a garden that would be as beautiful when looked down at from above. I believe the garden will have a very different feel when people take the time to walk down into it, than how they will perceive it from above. When you stand on the verandah on the main level, there is a great feeling of space and openness with views to the North West. You will look down onto a garden with a strong axis, focal points, and a lot of colour but it will still feel very open. Once in the garden it will feel far more introspective.
I thought the space would also lend itself to outdoor weddings, so in the long term it would be ideal to have an arbour on the lower terrace, which could also double-up as a shady outdoor eating area. A swimming pool in Durban is an absolute necessity. I positioned a long narrow pool on the top terrace, and then linked it with a rill to the main focal point which is a central fountain. Running water also helps cut out some of the faint sounds of traffic.
I wanted the garden to provide abundant cut flowers to be used in the guest house, so there will be a strong focus on flowers, and colour.
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Showing posts with label formal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label formal. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
Monday, 16 June 2008
Garden Show Planning
Today is a public holiday in South Africa - Youth Day. It commemorates the start of the Soweto Uprising in 1976, when school children were protesting against being taught in Afrikaans. The police opened fire on them and several children were killed and injured. This is the photo by Sam Nzima of the dying 12 year old Hector Pieterson, which became an iconic image of that day:
On a less serious note, I'm sitting down today to plan my stand at the Green With Envy Garden Show. The theme is "The French Courtyard". Fortunately thats a fairly open theme I think?
French Gardens are typically formal with topiary, ornate statuary, hedges and water features. But courtyards were generally less formal and were used for culinary purposes, for storing food plants and imported plants which could be given the extra attention they needed. So I think/hope there is a certain amount of freedom of interpretation.
This is my first sketch, the idea was meant to compare a more formal french style with a natural/indigenous style. They would be separated by a plant/moss filled crack. It didn't get the thumbs up from my wife (my best critic), so I'm moving on.
Thursday, 10 April 2008
Behind The Scenes
Recently, I went back to visit a garden that I completed about 9 months ago. This garden was a little tricky, in that it was a smallish garden with multiple uses. There were 3 main areas to the garden - a front garden with a pool and high walls, an old concrete driveway, and a grassy back garden with a patio area.
Before Photos
There were a couple of good points, that I felt we could use. There were some existing Eugenia hedges that would do a great job of breaking the height of the walls, but they were being cut too short to really make any impact. A medium-sized Leopard tree stood in the corner, which looked great, but possibly gave too much shade for the amount of traffic that the grass was subjected to. Also, there were some beautiful Icebergs growing around the edges of the grass.
The brief revolved mainly around updating the driveway, and improving the garden in general. The limiting factors were the need for parking and keeping an area for turning vehicles that come out of the garage.
I did some initial sketches with a couple of options to choose from, but my client was justifiably worried about losing too much space for parking and turning the cars. We settled on a comfortable balance between parking and aesthetics.
I kept the planting simple, using at the most 3-4 types of plants to an area, and removing the unwanted plants. I decided to keep the Eugenia hedge as a backdrop, with Duranta "Sheena's Gold" as a lower hedge in front, and then either Felicia, Agapanthus, or Plectranthus in the front.


We replaced the concrete on the driveway with Huguenot cobbles from Smartstone, and then planted Dietes grandiflora with Erigeron in between.
On the blank wall to the side, we attached wire to the wall and planted Trachelospermum (Star Jasmine) to climb up to form diamond shapes. This will make the wall seem less stark, and at the same time, spread the scent of Jasmine into the garden.
The brief revolved mainly around updating the driveway, and improving the garden in general. The limiting factors were the need for parking and keeping an area for turning vehicles that come out of the garage.
I did some initial sketches with a couple of options to choose from, but my client was justifiably worried about losing too much space for parking and turning the cars. We settled on a comfortable balance between parking and aesthetics.
I kept the planting simple, using at the most 3-4 types of plants to an area, and removing the unwanted plants. I decided to keep the Eugenia hedge as a backdrop, with Duranta "Sheena's Gold" as a lower hedge in front, and then either Felicia, Agapanthus, or Plectranthus in the front.
We replaced the concrete on the driveway with Huguenot cobbles from Smartstone, and then planted Dietes grandiflora with Erigeron in between.
The triangle bed between the driveway and patio, was previously a blank grass area. This left the patio area exposed. We moved some of the roses from the shadier north part of the garden into this bed, and then planted Lavender at the back, with Erigeron in front. The wire that can be seen in front of the bed, was to keep Bella the boisterous rottweiler out of the new flower beds. It gives a minor shock when you touch it (I've tested it!). After a couple of times of being shocked, the animals stay out of the bed. At this point you can turn it off, and even remove it, and the animals still won't go back into the beds.
We installed an irrigation system throughout the garden. In the main grassy area, we used pop-ups. In the rest of the beds and along the driveway, because of their awkward shape, we used drip irrigation pipes. This would also keep evaporation to a minimum, and therefore save water. The drawback with these pipes seems to have been their tendency to come apart at the joins, unless the hose clamps are extremely tight.
We installed an irrigation system throughout the garden. In the main grassy area, we used pop-ups. In the rest of the beds and along the driveway, because of their awkward shape, we used drip irrigation pipes. This would also keep evaporation to a minimum, and therefore save water. The drawback with these pipes seems to have been their tendency to come apart at the joins, unless the hose clamps are extremely tight.
Nearly a year after planting, I am very happy with the growth. Unfortunately, a caterpillar seems to have gotten into some of the Agapanthus, and eaten them. The hedges still need to fill out a bit, but are looking quite healthy. The drip pipe gives the odd bit of trouble, when the pressure is high. I'm looking forward to visiting this garden 2 years from now, when everything is more fully grown.
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