Classic Elegance

With the help of a talented landscaper, this Pretoria family took their garden from just fine to fabulous.

- Lauren Delargy

Although the garden at our new house is fine as it is, we wanted it to be showstopping.” This was Mike and Yvette van Reenen’s request to landscaper Helét van Blerk of Gorgeous Gardens at their first meeting.

“Our dream was to have a secret garden that feels like an oasis in the middle of the city," says Yvette, a keen gardener herself. She came across Helot while on a landscaping course. "Mike and I visited her website and her social media pages and fell in love with her style." Once the couple had moved into the new house, Helot started the process of transforming the garden.

Although the garden was laid out formally with hedging and topiary, it was all on one level and lacked interest and depth. The steps from the patio were small and not in proportion to the size of the house, and the lawn had a slight slope. “To solve this, we dug out the lawn area to a depth of 70cm so that it’s slightly sunken,” explains Helét.