WHO LIVES HERE? Gawie and Renè Steyn and their daughter Beate (15), with Tessa the Boxer and Mila the SchnauzerWHERE Kanoneiland, Northern CapeSIZE About 5 000m²AGE OF GARDEN 35 yearsTYPE OF SOIL Fertile silt
There’s little that gives me more of a lift than a freshly mown green lawn! It makes me feel instantly cool,” says Renè Steyn, who is fortunate to benefit from an abundance of water from the Orange River that makes gardening in a hot, dry climate so much easier.
“We bought the house in 1990. All it had was a small lawn, three date palms and a few shrubs that I still have to this day. The garden developed over the years as I worked towards hiding the unsightly parts of the property.
“With the help of a friend, I laid out beds with a garden hose and every year they just got bigger and bigger.
“The lawn has also gotten bigger. The kids had great fun splashing about on the lawn when it was our turn to receive water from the river.”
She explains: “A section of the canal from the Orange River runs through our property and in summer we open a sluice once a week which flood-irrigates most of the garden.
“The rest is watered via an irrigation system or with a hosepipe – also with river water. These days we irrigate between 9am and 4pm as we only use solar power.”
The first tree Renè planted was a paperbark thorn.
“Today it is a beautiful huge tree. Two of our kids got married under it. And although it takes a knock from the frost each winter, it always recovers in spring.
“I also planted lots of trees around the house to provide shade near the windows.
“The white stinkwood (Celtis africana) is my favourite and the leopard trees (Libidibia ferrea) with their lovely white trunks are thriving in the area between the office and the house where they are partially sheltered from frost,” she says.
Plant choices and weed control
“Initially I purchased lots of plants and was gifted some from friends. We get a lot of frost in winter and I soon learned from my mistakes – I realised that in our climate, it’s better to opt for plants that are hardy and frost-resistant,” says Renè.
“I never sow seeds because flowers don’t last long in our hot weather. When I want to increase my plant collection, I divide my stalwarts.
“In a garden as big as this, it works well if you grow a lot of one type of plant in a bed – this creates the perfect effect.
“Shrubs such as glossy abelia and heavenly bamboo, which take on gorgeous red hues in winter, make a wonderful statement in large groups.”
Renè uses groundcovers and mulches of pecan shells and wood chips, as well as autumn leaves that fall into the beds, to control weeds. This also retains moisture in the soil.
“Since our water comes directly from the river and isn’t purified, it has a lot of weed seeds in it so it’s essential to suppress weeds in this way.
“Plants that work well as groundcovers include Mexican fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus), dwarf mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus ‘Kyoto’), lily turf (Liriope muscari), blue fescue (Festuca glauca) and star jasmine – we keep the latter low by cutting it back.
“Covering the soil also creates an environment for micro-organisms to flourish, and they are vital for a healthy garden,” she explains.
Organic gardening
The Steyns farm with grapes, which are dried to produce raisins. Since the farm is fully organic, Renè gardens according to the same principles.
To nourish her garden, she uses compost and nutrients that Gawie makes himself, as well as vermicompost from her worm farm.
When a plant looks unhealthy, Gawie checks it out and brings her one of his organic mixtures with which to spray it.
Renè enjoys working in the garden, especially early in the morning.
“I regularly pull out weeds and love pruning and watering. The garden is well established now, and I have a dependable right-hand man, Gerrit King, who helps me on a daily basis.
“Between the two of us, it’s easy to keep it tidy. These days, we also have a small tractor that Gerrit uses to mow the huge lawn – a task that previously took him two days!”
This farm garden is a treasure trove of memories for Renè and her family.
Her daughter Deleen-Marié says that, for as long as she can remember, her mom has always been busy outside in the garden.
“This garden represents where we came from and what we experienced there. As kids, we played cricket on the lawn – if you hit the ball into the pool it was a six,” she says.
“None of the plants were purchased as big specimens, they all grew with us.
“Some items even got a new lease on life years later – like the garden gate from 20 years ago that now adorns a previously bare wall.”
Favourites
- Renè loves the white stinkwood (Celtis africana)*, monkey-thorn (Senegalia galpinii)* and paperbark thorn (Vachellia sieberiana var. woodii)*.
- The cocos palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana) for its beautiful trunk. “Just don’t plant it near a swimming pool – the fruit falls off and clogs the pool cleaner,” says Renè.
- Shrubs such as Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica), heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), glossy abelia
- (Abelia x grandiflora), Japanese quince (Chaenomeles lagenaria) and ponytail palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) all do well in the local climate.
They can grow in full sun and are frost-hardy.
- ‘Summer Snow’ is Renè’s favourite rose. It is virtually disease-free, looks lovely almost all year round and thornless.
- She also loves the low-maintenance rose, ‘My Granny’.
- Climbers such as star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) and Chinese wisteria (Wisteria sinensis) that provide colour in spring. The wisteria reminds Renè of the climber that grew in front of the Oranje-Meisieskool hostel where she lived during her schooling.
- She also loves bougainvillea and has planted a few of them, even though they are not frost-hardy.
- Butcher’s broom (Ruscus aculeatus) grows well beneath the paperbark thorn and is green all year round.
- Day lilies (Hemerocallis), agapanthus* and sages (Salvia) are in full bloom in summer.
* indigenous
