A few words that come up regularly as we walk around Jenny Louw’s Constantia garden are “biodiversity”, “wild nature” and “cycles”.
As the title of her book Earth Artist suggests, Louw works creatively with nature.
She’s also unambivalent when it comes to using chemicals in her garden, and that extends to everything in her life.
Her philosophy is simple: work with nature, learn from nature and give back to nature. Hers is not a “pretty” garden with lots of flowers, but it is beautiful and enchanting. It is also a reflection of who Louw is and how she lives her life. Her ideas on living healthy, food and mental inspiration are intertwined.
“It has to be the whole thing, they cannot be separated,” she believes.
There’s a giant clay pot just outside the house: it’s a beautiful piece of art, and in it she makes compost tea. There’s a layer of stones, rich soil full of life, and she feeds it up with kitchen scraps, collecting the “tea” which seeps out the bottom to feed back to her plants. It’s like a worm bin, but more beautiful.
When Louw first moved here 14 years ago, the garden was only old kikuyu lawns, totally depleted soil and trees.
Louw is a landscape designer by profession, but instead of imposing her will on the garden, she was willing to see what was needed here, allowing wild nature to return.
Louw spent her early years playing in the forests of Constantia before moving to a barren Bellville. “When I came here I decided I wanted to be reminded of the forest I grew up in. I am inspired to live in harmony with the earth – it’s my profession and my love,” she says.
What was missing from the conventional gardens she landscaped was wild, unkempt nature. “So I lived with the untamed and I learned from it. If I tame everything, I’m not expressing the creative force that is life.”
She began learning from nature. “This summer I watered 50 percent less than the year before. It was hard for me. But now I’m in touch with water. I made a resolution: water for food and fruit, and then I spot water only where needed.”
Food is an integral part of her garden. And the wildness that attracts all kinds of prey and predators (she even has a lynx that visits) creates biodiversity for the food garden to thrive on.
When she comes up against a problem, her question always is, “what would happen in nature?”
Her philosophy on weeds is a case in point. Weeds have a use, they are often pioneer plants: “I differentiate between weeds and invasive aliens. Weeds condition the soil, and die off in the heat of summer (or are killed by frost in winter in other areas). If you’re watering, they don’t die and they become a problem.
“I only remove invasive plants that threaten biodiversity and plants that don’t thrive. They have to cope in this environment.”
How to describe her garden? It’s an experience in diversity, the neat well-kept paths meandering through many areas, each one different.
First stop is the first veggie garden, wild at this time of the year. Butternut, pumpkin, and cucumber wander among the nettle, nasturtiums, gooseberries, kale and basil.
Louw shows me the mulching and composting area, the most important components of the garden. There’s compost in the making and mulch chopped up and ready, all in neat piles.
We pass different kinds of fig trees, then walk under a vine abundant with bunches of tiny Catawba grapes, sweet and large-pipped.
A sturdy wooden gate takes us to the natural swimming pool. No chemicals are used, the reed bed to one side filters the water. The area around the pool is new, planted with mostly indigenous plants. “I just plant things that really work.”
We pass through a wooded area of plectranthus, yellowwoods, indigenous olives.
“This part now needs little input from me,” she says.
Louw encourages dense shrubs, which creates habitats where animals can hide. Other than the lynx, there is also an otter that visits the garden.
“The biggest challenge in my garden is the water that flows on to the property,” she says, so nutrient dense from the gardens it has passed through that it’s a problem.
The Louws have created a wetland area, and reeds filter the water to make it healthy again.
The lotus thrives here, giant leaves drooping, flower heads all that remain.
Another gate takes us into the banana grove bursting with huge bunches of the yellow fruit. She started with six trees, now there are more than I can count. I’m told they taste sublime.
From the shady grove to the vegetable garden: I haven’t seen such healthy-looking cabbages, kale or tatsoi for a long time. “People say you need chemicals – but look at this,” she says.
Once more, it’s all about diversity, balance and creating ecosystems. Predators control other creatures. Snails are food for birds.
The cycle of nature must be worked with, not against.
“I used to be intimidated by vegetables. But my advice is to just start planting. People find their first year is a bumper crop, and then in year two and three it’s not. In that case you’re not managing to sustain the fertility of the soil. Go back to the basic principles and feed the soil.”
Past the vegetables is a younger garden, mostly fynbos with indigenous figs and Cape willows. “This garden took strain this summer, but it’s still a developing garden, and a lot did survive.”
Lastly, steps lead back to the house. Anemones have grown through the stairs. A sculpture is embedded in the pathway, looking skywards. Outside the kitchen she’s growing trays of greens – wheatgrass, sunflower sprouts, stinging nettle, chamomile and flax for the chickens.
If ever there was a garden of diversity, this is it.
* For more information on Earth Artist go to www.earthartist.co.za
Jenny Louw’s tips
l The key principle is biodiversity. Create biodiversity everywhere
* Compost is your base food.
* Soil needs probiotics – healthy micro-organisms (such as fungi and bacteria). There are products available (www.naturalgardening principles.co.za).
* Get the minerals your soil needs from seawater – water beds with a 10 percent dilution quarterly.
* Seek out top quality compost and mulch. It must be diverse in what it’s made from and organic. (Reliance is good).
* If you have a small space, use pots – you can easily grow lettuce and other leaf crops and herbs using the tips above.
* Create habitats – put logs on the ground for creatures to live in. Use stones.
* Avoid chemicals – they disrupt the biodiverse system and add toxins to the soil.
* Allow the food chain to develop, give competition to plants, such as weeds or predators. - Cape Argus