ADAPT and GROW

This Johannesburg garden proves some trends are always worth following

- MELANIE WALKER

Set the Stage

Ornamental and wild grasses in different heights, forms and hues of green and bronze have been used to enhance the prevailing colour theme.

Many say you shouldn't follow a trend but rather follow your heart. However, when the trend is sustainable and as good for the environment as it is for your heart and soul, don't buck the trend!

Sometimes, things that some say are 'trends' become longer-lived, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the trend that started many years ago - using waterwise plants, succulents and grasses in home gardens.

One such garden established over 30 years ago in Atholl, Johannesburg, embodies not only getting ahead of the curve, but also being ahead of the times.

It's as if Landscape Architect Don Logie foreshadowed gardens to come when he first set about creating a low-maintenance, waterwise garden space to fill a 34-acre lawn with just seven conifers and one Pride of India tree gracing its barrenness.

This way of planting, and designing, has its roots in the '80s, when the New Perennial movement took off in the Netherlands thanks to Dutch Garden Designer Piet Oudolf. These gardens champion using grasses and plants that grow back yearly rather than only lasting one. Gardens that take their cue from nature, thus, aren't manicured within an inch of their lives, but aren't neglected either, giving a softer aesthetic. The focus is on a diversity of plants that blend, not just with each other, but with surrounding ecosystems. Although this garden doesn't follow the prairie planting style most associated with that movement, the underlying concepts here are the same.

↓ Colour Contrast

Pitch-black Mondo grass (Ophiopogon planiscapus 'Nigrescens') defines the dark sweep of the path, while offsetting the pale greens of Carex 'Amazon Mist'