A lush farm-style paradise with abundant bird life

Maryke and Clifford Roberts aspired to have a lush farm-style garden with abundant bird life. She tells us how they achieved it...

Creating a garden that complements an old home, is mainly indigenous and doesn’t need much water or maintenance is, in itself, quite a challenge. But on top of that, preserving the existing garden that had to withstand an 18-month-long construction project made the task so much greater. Clifford and I bought the property, with its 1930s house, eight years ago. We later added a double garage with a flat on top, my dad’s cottage and a large galvanised zinc stoep. Architect Marcus Smit enhanced the farm feel of the old house by including galvanised zinc in the other structures, which are all separate from the house.

When we bought the place, it already had three giant oak trees and quite a few shrubs and other trees against the old boundary wall. When we renovated and built on, we wanted to make sure that every window or open door framed an extravagant picture of greenery. For this reason, we also decided not to build an outdoor braai, but rather an open veranda with unhindered access to the garden.

We paved large sections of the property to create a comfortable walking surface and to divert rainwater away from the house’s foundations.

The buildings form a natural square around the garden, with both the house and stoep overlooking it. Our first attempt at planting daisy lawn (Phyla nodiflora) under the oak tree in this area was a dismal failure, and even after replanting it twice, it remained an unsightly dust bowl.

Some of our other gardening projects also failed to yield the desired results so finally, in July 2019, we decided to enlist the help of a horticulturist. Walter Cloete of Walgro has been specialising in gardens in and around Strand for the past 35 years. He understands how the South-Easter can dry everything out in the blink of an eye, the sandy soil we have to cope with and the excessive groundwater in winter. >>

WHO LIVES HERE? Clifford and Maryke Roberts and Maryke’s dad, Andries Eygelaar WHERE Strand, Western Cape SIZE OF GARDEN ±260m² Horticulturist Walter Cloete, who assisted with the plant selection, not only wanted to use different types of plants, but also to ensure a variety of foliage sizes, shapes and colours.

The garden is bordered on three sides by the main house, the cottage that Maryke and Clifford built for her dad, Andries, and the freestanding stoep that was built in 2014. We featured the stoep in Home Yard that year, but it’s so beautiful that we decided to share it with you again (see page 120).

A huge freestanding galvanised zinc veranda overlooks the square garden under the oak tree. Here, Clifford and Maryke can enjoy watching their feathered visitors – either in the morning when they’re sipping their first cup of coffee or when they’re cooking and dining outdoors.

The blue of the main house’s back door forms a striking note among the green and brown shades of the garden.

Maryke and Clifford

The main house, the stoep, a boundary wall and Andries’s cosy cottage form a square around one of the oak trees. New cuttings are made and seedlings transplanted on the workbench next to the cottage.