Page 93 - Designing Ways 287

TAIL OF
THE DOG
Brenthurst Gardens

he Johannesburg Heritage causes are left standing to become with an enormous black sparrow
Society organised a recent tour bug hotels and homes to happy hawk nest. Another bonus was that
Tof the Brenthurst Gardens, which woodpeckers. Baskets left at various our guide was a trained birder, so
was booked out in a flash. We met on intersections of paths are used as he identified different calls during
an overcast morning, and were greeted “information centres”; if any blackjack the tour. These seemingly “wild and
by owner Nicholas Oppenheimer in or khakibos plants are seen in the woolly” gardens did have reminders
person, accompanied by the raucous area, they are pulled out and left in of their previous life in the many
calls of Vulturine Guineafowls standing the baskets, to alert other gardeners sculptures that are there, plus the
on a beam above us. to these potential invaders. wooden benches made out of fallen
trees, with snake forms as backrests,
We were split into two groups of The stone paths and steps are a regularly oiled to stop them rotting.
ten, each guided by one of the 16 legacy of legendary garden designer
gardeners. The garden is on a sloping Joane Pim, who worked at Brenthurst Back down, to the vegetable garden
property on the Parktown Ridge, just in the 60s and 70s, and who was a planted in accordance with the
over sixteen acres, neatly enveloped stickler for steps all having generous phases of the moon, and the principle
between the M1 Motorway in the treads and equal risers, so as not to of companion planting to keep greedy
south and the Johannesburg General trip anyone with unexpected height bugs at bay. The planting is done in
Hospital to the north. Two monstrous differences. There are paths that small beds so they can be tended from
beacons of progress, in total contrast wind through forest areas, steps that the sides, no need to step into them.
to the garden. go up and up into “Asia”, which was Further protection was assured by the
our guide’s name for the Japanese hooped nets over the tempting plants
For the past 25 years, there has been Garden. This was built over four years to keep out the resident peacocks and
a policy of letting the garden revert to by eight Japanese gardeners, on a hadedas.
itself, with no pesticides, removal of steep slope with a tall narrow waterfall
formality such as the Rose Garden, intersected by strategically placed With the foresight of the original
now a pelargonium garden, the tennis rocks, falling into a large koi pond at owners, who planted trees to create
court, now a spekboom labyrinth, the bottom. It was breath-taking, and a garden in the forest that was
trimmed by hand clipping to keep it well worth the climb to get there. already nearby, this is a green lung of
uneven and natural, the swimming exceptional beauty and vision. dw
pool, now an eco-pool. Trees that On the way upwards, we saw many
have died of natural or invasive huge trees, not all indigenous, one Gill Butler

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