FAMILY TREES
One of the best things about a garden is the space and setting it provides for families to spend time together. And if everyone can also have their favourite corner for chilling, so much the better. This thoughtful redesign of a typical suburban plot has
CHANGING your house almost always also means changing your garden. In fact, it’s the best time to tackle it and get the whole upheaval over in one brave move, which is what Brian and Lynette Rajchrt did at their house in Sundowner, Randburg. “We’d wanted to revamp the garden for ages, but it’s a costly exercise that we always kept on hold,” says Lynette. “Extending the house made it necessary to repave around the pool, which meant levelling the ground, and so on, and so on. So we decided to bite the bullet and do the whole garden.”
Lynette had known landscaper Debbie Smit since their sons were at preschool together, so it was natural that she should approach her for help.
“I’ve always wanted a beautiful garden,” says Lynette, “but I don’t have green fingers – and I work full time, so my first brief to Debbie was that it had to be low maintenance.”
Debbie came up with an imaginative and practical plan to cater for the busy lives of the parents and the leisure time of the children, Michael, 15, and Caitlin, 13. A basic layout of straight lines would suit the architecture of the house and also satisfy Lynette’s preference for a classic look.
Along the entrance side, the garden would be at its most formal with the English look she loves – low, clipped hedges of box and borders billowing with a classic shade planting of hydrangeas, fuchsias and ferns. Two existing cocos palms might have seemed out of place in the new scheme, but Debbie added two more for symmetry, which turned them into a key feature. Throughout the garden, she retained as much of the existing planting as possible.
Levelling is often the key to making the most of garden space. The awkward slope of the site made a retaining wall for the pool area necessary; this in turn created an ideal space for a sunken garden in what had always been a lost area dominated by a wild olive tree. Here, with gnarled tree trunks for seating around a fire pit, Debbie created the perfect space for Michael to chill with his friends away from parents, but in a safe territory of his own.
At the other end of the garden, under a handsome maple, she made a pretty secret garden for Caitlin. Along the boundary wall a line of acacias – Vachellia sieberiana – underplanted with grasses and Anthericum
saundersiae provided a happy reminder for Brian of Limpopo, where he grew up. The spreading crowns of the trees would also serve to screen the garden from the neighbouring townhouse complex. And above the sunken garden, on the same level as the main lawn and pool, a herb and vegetable garden was another special request that has added a charming and practical diversion.
After only three years, the garden has grown wonderfully. The box hedges and shrubs along the front of the house have filled out to a satisfying lushness and Lynette is delighted with her structured English garden.
The neglected olive has become a splendid feature tree shading the fire pit. The acacias, which were planted as quite small trees, have shot up to screen the neighbouring townhouses. And an always interesting variety of lowmaintenance planting fills the borders with texture and colour, with key plants such as russelia, watsonia, acanthus and agapanthus providing continuity. In Caitlin’s secret garden azaleas and fuchsias are flourishing – among
Ajuga, ‘Catlin’s Giant’, of course. The children have also grown and largely outgrown their much loved jungle gym. They now have a trampoline, but they still use the slide of the gym to splash into the pool and it remains a magnet for younger visitors. The fire pit, although still officially Michael’s, has also become a favourite retreat for Caitlin and friends; her brother graciously allowed her to celebrate her 13th birthday party there. • Debbie Smit, Foxglove Landscapes, 083-449-7048