Laid-back living

It's hard to believe that this slice of tropical splendour is in frosty Gauteng, but a clever design combined with judicious plant choices has given hot results.

- Connall Oosterbroek

IN BRIEF

Where: Ruimsig Country Estate, Roodepoort

Climate: Highveld

Size of garden: 650m²

Style of garden: Contemporary tropical

Soil type: Initially very poor, rocky soil; well-composted after

Vehicle branding does work, as landscape designer Sonita Young found out in early 2021 when a client phoned her and asked if she could come through and have a look at his garden. He has seen her vehicle, looked at her Facebook profile and website, and knew that she was the right person for what he had in mind.

“When I initially arrived on site, I saw that despite being in a complex, the garden was of relatively generous proportions, something that I could certainly get stuck right into,” says a smiling Sonita. “There really wasn’t much of a garden; mainly lawn, the swimming pool surrounded by old decking and a derelict, rubble-filled koi pond.”

The Brief

Sonita’s client and his family are very well travelled and particularly enjoy the lushness of the tropics, along with entertaining family and friends on sunny afternoons and balmy evenings. With this in mind, she set about designing a garden filled with luxuriant plants, hidden pathways, an opulent sunbed and a sunken fire pit.

“Because it is a spacious garden with ample ground to work with, I thought that it would lend itself to a structured, almost formal layout,” Sonita explains. From the stairs that descend from the house’s patio, she laid out a path of square and rectangular paving blocks edged with coarse gravel that leads you through to the solid lines of the decking around the pool.