Design and plants
Neville says it was quite a challenge to design a garden that took each sister’s unique style brief into consideration and, at the same time, create a cohesive flow between the homes. Ansi wanted a lush green garden with seasonal colour while Renette was after a more tropical feel.
Neville worked around the existing ponds and chose plants that naturally complemented the rest of the garden. The design was kept simple and he selected plants that will look good throughout the year. Most of the plants – trees, ornamental grasses and flowers – create a lush look.
“When it comes to trees, scale is vital so it was essential to choose trees that wouldn’t become a problem in the future,” says Neville. “Although most of the trees are small, we had to take the double-storey buildings into consideration; one wild olive (Olea europaea subsp. africana) was planted that will, with time, grow quite big and create the necessary balance.” The soil beneath the trees was heaped up to form a small hill – Neville says this is a great way to add dimension to smaller gardens.
To create seasonal variety – one of Ansi’s prerequisites – interesting flowering plants were placed among the tall-growing grasses, such as purple statice (Limonium perezii) between the weeping anthericum (Anthericum saundersiae) and daylilies (Hemerocallis spp.) among the Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracillimus’.
Paving stone pathways were used to link the two houses as the sisters wanted to be able to walk back and forth through their shared garden.