A property in the heart of the Constantia Winelands has been given new life as an abundant food garden, thanks to the inspired vision of its owners
The genesis of this vegetable garden was a very clear brief: To create a food garden and entertainment pavilion for long, lazy lunches with family and friends. A collaboration between garden designer Franchesca Watson and architecture firm Malherbe Rust resulted in a vegetable, herb and flower garden with strong architectural lines, just glamorous enough not to detract from the rural comfort that is at its heart. The pavilion, too – conceptualized as a glass cube – sets up just the right amount of tension between pastoral harmony and 21st-century living.
‘We visually anchored the glass pavilion by placing a lily pond on either side of it,’ says Franchesca. The rill was painted in a chalky white as a nod to the traditional Dutch farming irrigation practices of the area and positioned centrally as a device to draw the eye through the garden and up towards the sweeping, 360-degree views of the surrounding Constantiaberg mountains. ‘The rill was built so as to appear infinite, with the pond into which it flows tucked away at the base of a low retaining wall. This clever addition disguises a tricky level change and visually separates the garden from the nearby driveway.’
A water channel with custom-designed fountains bisects the garden and creates a visual axis from the homestead down one of the main pathways, connecting it to the newly created vegetable garden. Plant supports in the form of ‘latte’ planting frames; pathways defined by ‘klompie’ brick edging; raised planters for herbs, edible nasturtium, and pelargonium flowers; and established guava and almond trees all add a three-dimensional quality to the garden.
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