The same thoughtfulness has been applied to the fruit orchard and, though it is substantially larger than the kitchen garden and only five years old, one would be forgiven for thinking it had always been there. Inspired by the formal fruit gardens laid out by the Dutch in the 1650s when the Cape was a refreshment post for eastbound ships en route to India for spice trading, it now spans 2,200 square metres.
Cauliflowers interplanted with vibrant red and pink edible dianthus thrive in the orchard garden, under the peaks of the Drakenstein mountains.
Elsa YOUNG
Today, the orchard is a profusion of apricot, plum, pear, apple, citrus, cherry, fig, pomegranate, mulberry, macadamia and pecan trees. Clad in roses ‘Madame Alfred Carrière’ and ‘Albéric Barbier’, an arbor creates a gloriously fragrant canopy. Clouds of lilac scabious surround a hand-carved boulder, now a feature water basin fed by a natural spring. Mixed hedging – Kiggelaria africana (wild peach), Buddleja saligna (false olive) and Searsia angustifolia (taaibos) – form windbreaks, while offering shelter and food to birds like Cape robin-chats, wagtails and fork-tailed drongos.
Lilac Scabiosa africana surrounds a handcarved-boulder water feature fed by a natural spring.
Elsa YOUNG
Beyond the orchard, in an area that was once the werf or backyard of the old homestead, a small gate leads into the 7,000-square-metre fynbos garden. Redefined to echo the Drakenstein mountains at its boundary, it is filled with low-lying fynbos grasses and bulbs as a tribute to the Cape Floristic Region. Sourcing endemic species wasn’t easy, but the reward is a garden that blurs the lines between cultivated and wild, flourishing naturally with little intervention.
Dominique walks in the garden and on the mountain every day. ‘It’s a thrill to see geraniums, wild grasses, watsonias and indigenous bulbs thriving on the slopes – and again in my garden.’ The fynbos garden hums with life. Iridescent malachite sunbirds flash through the air, porcupines uproot bulbs and, of course, there are snakes. ‘Paradise must always have a snake,’ she says. ‘Otherwise, it’s not paradise’.
Danie Steenkamp: ddsprojects.co.za
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