At The Edge

Where Design meets Nature.

It is now Aloe Season, and visitors to this garden are hard pressed to choose between gazing ahead at the stunning gorge view, or drinking in the bright display of an African winter covering the slope far below you. The wooden deck that wraps around the front corner is the first port o’ call for everyone. Ahead of you is Krantzkloof Nature Reserve fading into the distant horizon. To the left, an outstanding form of Albizia adianthifolia that marks the change in levels from house to garden.

Below, Aloe ferox, A. vanbalenii, Leonotis, Hypoestes, Erythrina, Kniphofia, Strelitzia – winter favourites that never fail to delight. The house sits at the top edge of a steep slope that drops sharply towards a line of stone cliffs, a part of a deep gorge within the Reserve, a stunning view that sold the property to Chris Dalzell and Pam Evans. What would scare the average gardener, though, did not deter Chris, with years of experience in landscaping both here and abroad. Past curator of Durban Botanic Gardens, he is perhaps, most wellknown for his work as Assistant Director for the Gardens by the Bay project in Singapore, considered to be the most ambitious horticultural project ever undertaken. Still, it required site knowledge and planning to get it right, so renovation work began instead on the house, to give Chris time to become familiar with local garden conditions; 7 years on, trees and shrubs are maturing, and the success of the design is evident.