We had a long box built on the boundary next to the road and in this we imported good quality soil. We then put up the wooden lattices so that the plants that we were putting in were given some form of support. In the box we planted melalucas, climbing roses, bouganvilleas, hibiscus, viburnum and bottle brush plants which are fairly quick growers.

In the rest of the garden we imported river sand to go over the clay/boulders so that we could try and get the garden level.

Next to the pool we made the coloured stones and stepping stone area and you can see the circular stone area in the background where there is a cluster of giraffes.

We decided not to plant grass and go for low maintenance as there would be times when we weren’t here for a few weeks. However we have found that over the five years we have been here we didn’t anticipate the amount of pruning required on the hedge. The weeding is not too bad in winter but needs weekly work in summer.

The garden now

The plants

You can see that I formed planting areas with railway sleepers and again we filled the box with good quality potting soil. I have a corner with succulents and the big cactus.

You see euphorbia (vertical cacti – like organ pipes) and aloes growing in the country – common as chips. You can grow just about anything at Hartbeespoort. My neighbour has a huge protea bush which she brought as a cutting from Cape town and it grew so quickly that she had about 30 beautiful flowers on it within a year. I have a king protea which has flowered twice but has nothing on it at the moment.

The clivia has seen better days but is very pretty.

Marylyn’s King Protea flowering in October 2013