Carefully Curated

"Thanks to clever choices and daily care, this garden with its more than 100 roses looks gorgeous for months on end."

- By Marie Esterhuyse. Photography by Jeandri Streicher

WHO LIVES HERE? Dirk and Muriel Lutz and two of their kids, Heinrich (25) and Mieke (22)

WHERE De Zalze, Stellenbosch SIZE OF FRONT GARDEN 80m², of which 35m² is planted up

TYPE OF SOIL Clay

The Australian brush cherry behind the bench has been neatly trimmed to form a lush green backdrop; a row of these shrubs is also forming a hedge along the boundary wall to the left. Two red pelargoniums in old asbestos pots that Muriel got from her mom flank the bench.

Some of the beds in Muriel’s front garden are framed with a low white wall, others with hedges of dune crow-berry (Searsia crenata) and Duranta erecta ‘Sheena’s Gold’. Pennyroyal (Mentha pulegium) is planted between the pavers. A balau deck surrounds the pool.

Pelargoniums remind Muriel of her mom, who always had red ones in her garden.

Muriel Lutz says gardening in a small space presented a real challenge for her. “I grew up on a farm near Merweville and had huge gardens my entire life,” she says.