Gardening: Guts before glamour

Luckily most of us can appreciate lush gardens. Some can even become so excited when beholding the contours of a well-designed piece of horticultural wizardry that they could easily imagine themselves being in paradise.

It is, though, an undeniable fact that to design and maintain a garden of growth and beauty demands a whole lot of thinking, sweat and toil. Many are not willing to face such demands head on.

Paging back to my childhood memories, I recall that the Cape peninsula is for the most part characterized by fatty, sandy soil, especially on the so-called Cape Flats. I remember observing how a spattering of water droplets would form minute balls of moisture cascading down the dry sides of hollows before being absorbed by the sand. Yet, it was in that very same soil that my father planted a variety of vegetables ranging from carrots to tomatoes, especially his favourite, sweet potatoes.



The front garden was my mother’s domain and here she would pride herself in her broad-leaved pig’s ears (or arum lilies). Saturdays would often find her watering and weeding her garden or transplanting seedlings.

Naturally the Cape Mediterranean climate with its winter rainfall and dry summers dictated the choice of plants and/or veggies.
Life changed drastically for me and my bride. After I took up a teaching post in eastern SWA, it was a different ball game. The winters were dry and cold, summer rain unpredictable and droughts not unknown. As newlyweds we literally knew nothing about gardening, its challenges and unpredictable twists and turns.

We valiantly decided to tackle the bull by the horns. Family and friends were consulted, books on gardening were bought and studied to acquire the necessary knowledge covering everything from fertilization to pests and diseases.

That wasn’t all: We discovered that garden tools were no luxury but a singular necessity. So, a garden fork, a spade, a rake and a wheelbarrow were added to our arsenal, apart from a watering can and a variety of seeds and seedlings. Thus we also had to face the inescapable truth that gardening was neither cheap nor for the faint-hearted.

The soil was hard and stony, but we adapted quickly. Before very long a small patch of red and white roses was thriving, yellow marguerites bordered the driveway and in a sheltered corner geraniums were pushing out their first buds while a newly constructed pergola supported yellow bougainvillea. Adjacent to the northern wall of the house a contoured lawn formed a carpet of green. Such was our first abode together.
Gradually we could stand back and enjoy the beauty of our own little piece of Eden and could feel utterly at home. Joint perspiration made for shared joy.


Nickey van Zyl