The magic of a personalised garden.

A clever person once said that if you have a garden and a library, you have all you need. While we can’t really help you with the library (luckily you have the magic of the internet), we can help you with the garden!

Every flower blooms in its own time.

No two people, bread loaves, sunsets or gardens can or should be the same.

The first step in getting to your garden “Happy Place” is to pick your aesthetic. You get to decide whether you like:

• contemporary modern lines with accents of concrete and metal,
• drought resistant and water wise gardening with lots of rockeries and succulents,
• an overgrown cottage garden with flowering shrubs and rainbow blooms,
• or classical Mediterranean design with citrus trees, trimmed lavender and rosemary hedges and lollipop white roses. Green and white as far as the eye can see…

A flower does not compete with other flowers, it just blooms

Most importantly you need to pick the garden that works for you. This means looking at your own personality, your budget and your willingness to put in the work (or pay someone to do it…). BUT this also means looking at your home biogeographically. Do you have wet or dry summers? Do you live in a frost zone?

It’s not as easy as going on Pinterest and creating a dream garden board without taking these things into account. There’s a reason why the Versailles gardens probably lead to the French revolution. Some dreams (particularly those of massive water features) are better off left undone.

A good place to start is your local nursery. Speak to the inevitable auntie who runs it, find out what works for where you are, and start small.

Bloom where you are planted and sow where you are fed.

If you’re gonna DIY this, give yourself a couple of seasons. Plant a small number of plants, and simply maintain what you have already. If all your plants survive to the next season, you can let your aesthetic “creep” through your garden with gentle changes that won’t break the bank, or your back.

South Africa has about a million (ok – 13) distinct climate zones. Getting to know yours, and fitting your aesthetic into what works for your weather, will save time, money and heartache when your petunias start dying off in droves in the scorching Karoo sun.

As in life, a garden is a give and take – you have to respect the balance between control and letting go. Basically – trim the hedge but let the tricky creeper roam wild!

Got some time to burn this morning? Take this quiz to find out what your Garden aesthetic is.

Here’s another one…and another!