Explore wildlife-friendly gardens around the city
On the weekend of April 2 and 3, the KZN inland branch of the Botanical Society will be presenting its wildlife friendly open gardens in and around Pietermaritzburg. The popular event is back after a two-year break due to the Covid19 pandemic.
“Our goal, in presenting these gardens, is to show the public just what we can do and plant to encourage nature back into our spaces,” a spokesperson for the society said. “We are very grateful to the passionate gardeners who have agreed to let us showcase their gardens.”
Garden one: Louise Schmidt, 4 Dorset Place, Scottsville.
About 25 years ago, Louise and her late husband, Wernher, bought a pretty pink house teeming with roses and an English style cottage garden.
Beautiful, but not quite what Louise, who confesses to being a latent botanist, had in mind. She wanted to celebrate her love of indigenous flora and all the little creatures that it would attract.
An incredible transformation took place and, today, her garden is filled with delightful treasures. Louise positively glows as we step around a host of Crocosmia (Falling Stars) to show us her ‘Traveller’s joy’, Clematis brachiata.
Interesting plants fill every nook in the garden and the back garden is dominated by an enormous Outeniqua Yellowwood where a tranquil bench rests, waiting to welcome the dreamers.
This garden will show you what you can do in your space, with colour and form, to celebrate our rich plant heritage.
Garden two: Uplands Park, hosted by Glen MacArthur (opposite 60 Uplands Road, Blackridge).
This is a large park, full of enchantment and wonder. If you want a rippling stream or a winding path, a tall tree or a colourful flower, aloe or a fern, then I can hardly think of a better place to while away a few moments – or hours. Also, if you just want to sit and be at peace, there will be a spot for you too.
Glen MacArthur is full of dreams and vision, and so this piece of wild land has been transformed into a park where everyone is welcome to enjoy the experience.
The dreams continue, and new bits are cleared and planted as new ideas burst into his head. His team of helpers work together with him and they continue to create and create (and maintain).
Here, the slopes can be quite steep and we recommend “sensible” shoes and possibly a stick, but Glen and his helpers have also installed railings on the most precarious bits - which weren’t as bad as I had been led to believe.
t is also a place where you can go as far as you want or just enjoy the lush splendour close to the entrance.
You can stand at the top and look out into forever, or you can venture into that forever, cross the railway line and wander down amongst newly planted trees, admiring the birds and butterflies.
Garden three: Terry Olckers, 1 Vlei Road, Hilton.
Terry is passionate about protecting our indigenous heritage. He is an entomologist, whose area of interest is biological control of invasive aliens; so it is not surprising to find a garden bursting with a variety of indigenous plants, mostly trees, planted to encourage the many wild creatures that both visit and live in his garden.
An added bonus is that most of the trees are labelled, giving visitors the chance to see these mature trees in a garden setting.
This is a garden where you may see a genet (though they usually come in at night). You are guaranteed to see, if you look carefully, interesting insects and there will be butterflies, dragon flies and birdsong.
Need to know:
The KZN inland branch of the Botanical Society gardens will be open from 9.30am to 4pm on Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3. A R50 entrance fee will allow access to all three gardens on either day.
The money raised will go towards environmental education projects and a project they have with the KZN National Botanical Garden in Pietermaritzburg to conserve threatened and endangered plants from the Midlands grasslands.