Stylish Restoration In Saxonwold

Joburg’s venerable trees have been treated with the respect they deserve in a garden makeover that features roses, roses and more roses.

- Alice Spenser-Higgs

Jan Smuts Avenue is one of Joburg’ s longest, most illustrious avenues, threading its way through suburbs rich in history and bypassing residences of former mining magnates that are still shaded by stately jacaranda trees, silver oaks and date palms, almost as old as the city itself.

Many homes have become businesses, the gardens paved over for parking and former grandeur gone to seed. But there are also pockets of restoration and beauty, such as can be found at number 107. Once the residence of the French consul-general, it’s now owned by a digital marketing company, whose visionary owner has reclaimed the style and grace of this 1930’s mansion and given landscaper Karen Gardelli virtually carte blanche with the garden.

“Like many old Joburg properties, it was completely overgrown and neglected, but you could see that the garden was once beautiful,” recalls Karen, who took on the garden just over a year ago.

Her only brief was to keep the trees, to provide enough space for parking, and to create a serene and beautiful outdoor space. And the roses? They’re planted by the hundred around the house, under its windows and in terraces leading down to the parking.

When I ask if the roses were part of the brief, Karen answers with a laugh. “Nope, that’s me, but he loves them and we pick roses for the office every Monday when we work in the garden. When clients visit, he makes a point of saying that the roses come from his own garden!”