During their 36 years of married life, Wimpie and Marlene Basson have lived in many homes. And having tended as many gardens, they certainly didn’t need a landscape architect to advise them on the layout of their latest project.

When Wimpie, a property developer, discovered this piece of land at Die Boord in Stellenbosch four years ago, he immediately brought Marlene to see it. The property was effectively lying fallow and the garden had to be laid out before a house was built, as there would be no access for motorised machinery afterwards.

Trees For Life
There certainly wasn’t time to nurture saplings, so Wimpie braced himself and reached deep into his pockets to order almost 70 10m-tall trees from Trees South Africa. His favourite water oaks topped the list, followed by poplars for the boundary lines, waterberry and plane trees, num-nums, white stinkwood, olive trees, Cape ash, fever trees, sand olives, and pin oaks.
At times it was nerve-wracking deciding which trees should go where, with the digger loader and the crane standing by, and knowing that second thoughts were out of the question! Once each tree had been planted – all within a day – stones and drainage pipes were laid to address the problem of marshy ground, and then everything was levelled and grassed over, allowing the dust to literally settle before the flowerbeds were laid out.

Planned Beddings
The Bassons like clean lines but they have had enough of edges that need to be meticulously trimmed. So each flowerbed was neatly edged with bricks. And because they travel frequently these days and are often away from home for long stretches, fine gardening also wasn’t an option. Instead, they largely opted for shrubs and roses.

Words and images: Home magazine