A Work of Heart

Although some say that to create a garden, you should work with nature, not against it, Nellie van Aardt says she didn't just grow flowers to do so, she had to fight nature...

- Nellie van Aardt

The challenge of creating and keeping a garden going in the Eastern Cape can be daunting for even the most knowledgeable and determined gardeners. Rocky, shallow and impoverished soil, severe droughts - these are just a couple of the factors that could make one throw up one's hands and just be done with it.

Securing plant cover that is ornamental, edible and at the same time hardy enough to deal with the climactic conditions, let alone the lack of depth of soil for them to root in, can be a struggle. In an area where camel thorn trees, low scrubland and termite mounds stretch out seemingly endlessly, this farm is a green oasis sandwiched in a transition zone between various ecosystems, with a predominant sedimentary rock type consisting of compacted grains of sand and stones from ancient rivers and lakes that have petrified into rock. Not the best earth to be working with.

However, after four generations of a family that has been farming Baviaanskrans since 1859, which had decided a 'pretty' garden was just going to be something that would never happen there, Nellie decided to work hard at creating one. And succeeded.

Her ongoing battle to work against nature to get what she wanted worked, despite all the obstacles nature kept throwing at her, has culminated in a glorious garden with a magical, lush combination of plants and flowers hidden behind a landscape dominated by endemic acacias and aloes. Although it would have been easiest to emulate the landscape, and just go for a variety of succulents that would connect with the bigger picture, Nellie took up the challenge to create a work of heart and soft beauty.