Cape Town - Around every hedge a story, in every garden a surprise. There are many gardens at Vergelegen in Somerset West, and the best part is that you are free to wander where you will, and discover the estate’s hidden treasures.
It’s been many years since I visited to see the amazing camellia collection, and this time I was curious, as I knew there had been some changes.
Turns out that a whole lot has changed – the beautiful camellias are still there, about to blossom profusely and worth a visit just to see them, with over 550 varieties and 1 000 plants. But there are new gardens to explore, and old ones with new looks.
Garden manager Richard Arm shows me around, our final destination the cellar fynbos garden. We never get there.
The new East Garden and the Reflection Garden, as well as a visit to the camellias and the yellowwood forest, not to mention lingering a long time at the big five camphor giants, keep us busy.
Arm delights in telling the stories that each garden holds, and so before we know it three hours have passed, the clouds threaten rain, and we decide to take a rain check and return another time.
It must be the child in me, but I’m delighted by the hollow oak tree that you can stand inside, thought to be the oldest oak tree in southern Africa. And the smell of camphor when Arm picks up a fallen stick and breaks it for us. I wasn’t going to be tempted by the camellias, but couldn’t resist.
The East Garden is new, home to a collection of 14 000 agapanthus (21 varieties) donated by collector Richard Jamieson. The area, leading from the new Stables restaurant, was landscaped by OVP, the same people who did the Green Point Urban Park.
The beds of agapanthus are planted diagonally, with bands of different height and colours, lining up with the south-east wind break.
A water feature faces true east, to the Langkloof. There is an aquatic pond, designed by Clive Gilliomee, in which no chemicals are used; the plants are used for filtration and UV light kills bacteria.
The brief was to design a garden that reflected the historical and agricultural elements of the farm. To be included was a children’s play area, with the concept of an adventure garden, inspired by the garden at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. An oak arboretum with 15 different varieties has been planted.
The trees are still young, and a giant acorn carved from a fallen tree from the estate marks the east axis. A few agapanthus are in bloom now, but from November to January they will be at their best. Edging plants like statis and scabiosa offer some colour at this time of the year.
There’s a maze in the process of being built, with young vines growing along the trellising. The maze is seven layers deep. “It’s for children of all sizes,” says Arm, “with a drinking fountain as you go in, and a reward in the centre – a water feature and a bench. It will hopefully be ready in October.”
The children’s play area is beautifully equipped with hidey holes to crawl through, things to climb on, disabled-friendly swings, a basket swing and a stream for water play.
The play park was designed by Johan Theron.
Large animals have been carved from fallen trees on the estate – a solid oak tortoise, a tractor, guinea fowls and my favourite, some sheep. The artist is tree surgeon Wayne Kitney.
A berm behind the play area is planted with Felicia, scabiosa, sweet pea bushes, watsonia, confetti bushes, dietes, agapanthus, plumbago and gazania. Behind this a windbreak of fast-growing Dutch Elders, to mirror the other windbreak, has been planted.
The gardens are all organic, no pesticides are used. Peach pips are used for mulch. And there’s plenty of lawn for children who want to play with balls.
The Reflection Garden is the former “white garden”. It has been given a lift with two long ponds mirroring each other and the original homestead in the background.
“We struggled with it over the years,” says Arm. “It had lost the plot.”
When the Camphors restaurant was redone, it was an opportunity for change.
“I wanted to improve the flow through the garden, to bring the public through here.”
Two smaller ponds were converted into a long one and another built to reflect it.
The ponds reflect the old homestead and the sky, and on a still night, the stars.
Each garden has its own gardener, each passionate about the garden, says Arm.
Not everyone can garden, not everyone has the space, or the time, or the inclination. Which makes it so special to be able to walk in gardens tended by others, in this beautiful setting.
I had such a sense of adventure as we passed from one garden to another, with paths leading me from the more tended gardens to the wilder spaces on the periphery.
I still want to see the fynbos garden. Next time I’ll go there first.
* Vergelegen is open seven days a week from 9am to 4pm. Entrance is R10 a person.