An indigenous cottage creation
A cottage garden is traditionally a mixture of colourful ornamental plants mixed with vegetables and herbs grown for the table. It is a working garden where plants are to please us and sustain our needs rather than impress others.
With the state of our country and the world in general, we are harking back more than ever to those times where we considered which flowers will be best enjoyed by the bees — those that are water wise and economical to maintain.
Years ago it was popular to garden in the “cottage garden” style. The purpose back then though was more commonly for our own pleasure than to maintain the environment.
Every new plant that came into the nursery was feted and fellow gardeners would drop in to said nursery after the school run or on their way home to browse around to get their daily gardening fix. We’d tell ourselves that it was OK if we just bought one plant that day. There was sure to be a gap that needed filling.
We did not know we were simply creating a “fruit salad garden”.
And the plants we were buying were very often beautiful flowering exotics (those that aren’t native to our country that thrive and eventually displace our indigenous flora).
It was not considered that indigenous plants contribute to the environment. They provide shelter and food for wildlife and their growth cycle is in tune with these animals’ needs. They contribute to our eco systems and are water saving too as they readily adapt to our conditions.
A “fruit salad” garden has to be appreciated in bits, as each element has no relation to the whole and does not necessarily complement it. It is busy and does not induce restfulness.
I recall the impact years ago of a visiting Lothario landscaper from the Cape — who at the time was offering workshops and private consultations in the Eastern Cape — influencing a new way of establishing a planting design. These workshops were met with great success.
The lessons learnt were based on establishing the principles of mass, form, line, texture and colour.
We were told that forming patterns with plant shapes leads to the creation of rhythm and charm — as well as a sense of awareness of the different textures and contrasts. Most times he didn’t particularly focus on the names of plants but rather the work they could do to achieve a design.
The area or space occupied by an object is mass. This includes built structures such as your house. The lawn is an “empty space”. Empty space is more important than occupied space in a design as it unites the whole.
Line is the most important influence in a garden design. Lines are what lead the eye in to the garden. They can be curved, straight, horizontal and vertical. All are important in the greater scheme of things.
Strong lines draw you into the landscape, directing where you look and which way you will go.
Curving lines are more informal, gentle, natural and relaxed. They take you on an adventure — be they in the form of a pathway or garden bed outline. Straight lines elicit an impression of order and are more formal. When thinking of horizontal lines, picture the horizon which creates a sense of stability. This makes me think of times on a yacht when the sea was choppy. Just focusing on the horizon stilled you (the line never changes) and kept you from succumbing to sea sickness.
Vertical lines as in the upward growth of a tall tree, project a feeling of strength and movement. They lead the eye upward.
Texture can be divided into coarse, medium and fine (grasses and ferns). Combinations of all three textures evoke a varied appeal. These are textures such as those with a rough, prickly, furry, frilly and smooth appearance and feel, as well as the materials of hard landscaping (pathways) and accessories (benches, rocks, garden art etc). A successful design should have more fine textures than coarse textures as the fine textures create a backdrop for coarse bold ones.
Scale is the proportion of one component in relation to another. In a large garden, a small bed is out of proportion to the whole. Size the different components according to their surroundings.
Do create balance in the garden which can either be symmetrical or asymetrical. In a symmetrical design you can divide the landscape in half and see that one half of the planting is a mirror image of the other. This is the mark of a formal straight jacket type garden. In an asymmetrical design, the one side of the planting is not exactly similar to the other. It is more relaxed and less exacting.
Avoid monotony; that is too much of one element in the design, and which can make it boring. Conversely, too many different elements can look cluttered (like a fruit salad garden) and disharmonious.
Indigenous plant options include not only the masculine shapes of the proteas, “vetplante” and aloe species. For your information here are some pretty flowering alternatives to exotic flowers (you can consult Google to see what they look like):
Blues — plumbago, agapanthus, aristea (bulbous), Freylinia, barleria, Cape forgetme-not
Pinks — scabiosa (also in mauve and white), September bush, anisodontea, barleria greenii, arctotis, pelargonium, Port St Johns creeper, proteas, freesias, watsonias Orange — crocosmia, red hot poker, Clivias, strelitzia, Bahinia galpini, Cape honeysuckle, gazanias, osteospermum, Black eyed Susan, aloes, pincushions
Daisy-like flowers — Barberton daisies, gazanias, osteospermum, African daisies, flowering ivy
Yellow — Cape honeysuckle, bulbinella, Euryops daisy, flowering ivy, canary creeper, aloes, pincushion proteas
White — Mackaya bella, Carissa macrocarpa, Dietes, pelargonium, arum lilies, star jasmine, candelabrum lily.
In the Garden is written by feature writer, garden enthusiast and former teacher Julia Smith, who has returned home to live in Chintsa East. The column looks to inform both novice and accomplished gardeners on how to make the most of their green patches.