The Gardener Magazine

Happily, it is no dour Italian head gardener wielding sheep shears, but African Renaissance man Wessel van Deventer (“originally from Thabazimbi, my dear!”), who opens the ornate garden gates and bids you welcome with a wide grin and typical South African hospitality.
Wessel is an acknowledged fundi when it comes to interior decorating, however, his talent for gardening seems equally impressive. His grandparents encouraged his love of gardening and he grew up surrounded by pretty gardens. His mother always told him to remember his roots but to fly high and live his dream…
This glorious garden, which seems somewhat surreal in Blue Bulls country where sky-blue jacarandas still dominate, was an ivy-clad plot before Wessel decided a drastic change was needed.
“The garden as it is now is about nine years old and I chose every plant myself. I travel a lot, especially to the Philippines, and I have found (along with the indoor decorating items I use in my trade) most of the pots, urns, statues and other hard landscaping elements that grace my garden.”
One has to ask some practical questions to find out how the garden reached such a grand scale:

Where did you start, and howdid you get the plants to grow
so impressively?
“First, I planted the boundary plants, including young CUPRESSOCYPARIS leylandii (Leyland cypress) and VIBURNUM odoratissimum. Next, after a while, came the contrasting focal points in the landscape. To get them to grow as fast as possible in order to prune them into formality, we fed the young ones every week with Multifeed, a water soluble fertiliser. Now we do two annual feeds with Bounce Back only.”

How often are the plants pruned?
“We prune and shape every ten days. I have two full-time gardeners in my employ and they are as passionate about this garden as I am. They are simply the best!”

The planting is dense and some of the plants have a reputation for being prone to attacks by Italian cypress aphid.

How do you cope?
“We put insecticide granules around their stems every six weeks, without fail.
A professional company is employed to
spray them with high pressure spray equipment in the cooler months, when the aphids are active. Well-cared for conifers such as the Leyland cypress can live forever.”

Special tricks from Wessel
• Lavender, although pretty, is not a good choice for a formal garden style such as this; it is just too short-lived. I used it, lost it and had to re-plant. WESTRINGIA fruticosa (Australian rosemary) has been a much better choice. It tolerates continuous sharp pruning, rewarding immediately afterwards with new dense growth, and it simply lives longer.
• The FICUS pumila (tickey creeper) that covers the walls gets frequent, sharp haircuts. You comb your fingers through its growth, pull it gently away from the wall, snip it, and let it go. It is like creating a bonsai on a large scale; the resulting tickey-sized leaves are what you want. (Without the frequent snipping the leaves become far bigger.)
• I used to have only soft, ball-cut DURANTA ‘Sheena’s Gold’ as a formal border in one pavement garden. It was gorgeous until it was vandalized by a 4 x 4 driver. I have replaced the destroyed plants with silver-painted cement balls that are indestructible, but still fit the style of my garden.

Plant list
CUPRESSOCYPARIS leylandii
(Leyland cypress)
CUPRESSUS sempervirens ‘Swane’s gold’
JUNIPERUS scopulorum ‘Skyrocket’

Begonias
TRACHELOSPERMUM jasminoides
(star jasmine)
Agapanthus ‘White Ice’
VIBURNUM odoratissimum
Duranta ‘Sheena’s Gold’
SYZIGIUM paniculatum
(Australian jamboree)
WESTRINGIA fruticosa
FICUS microcarpa ‘Hawaii’
OPHIOPOGON japonicus ‘Kyoto’
CAESALPINIA ferrea
(leopard tree)

Thank you to Wessel for sharing his incredible garden with us. Contact Wessel van Deventer Interiors on 082 927 8112.