The Lifestyle Home Garden Design Show has opened in Randpark Ridge in Johannesburg and continues until late May. The show includes five designer gardens built by students of the Lifestyle College over a period of three weeks.
All five designer gardens offer creative solutions for gardeners in SA living in an era of climate change and limited budgets.
A special feature of this year’s show is an increase in the size of the gardens. Instead of numerous small demonstration gardens, the five show gardens are generous in size. They are planned to resemble “real-life” gardens and the ideas gleaned at the show can easily be recreated in your own garden.
“Underlying each garden is an eye-catching and simple philosophy that will appeal to any gardener,” says Lifestyle College’s, Richard Gibb.
Designing with water
All five show gardens incorporate a water feature which reflects an interest by landscaping students to inject eco-consciousness into their outdoor space. The gardens also reflect an interest in creating a private retreat and including a home for micro fauna, birds and butterflies.
By combining modern living with contemporary garden style, gardens are no longer viewed as a pretty filler space between the street and the house.
Now, more than ever, they are spaces with purpose and homeowners are viewing their gardens as places where they can make a difference.
The cocooning trend continues unabated and people are spending more time at home. As such, renovating an existing garden to create an attractive landscape that meets modern needs is the dream of many homeowners.
In this respect, the gardens at the Lifestyle Garden Design Show offer loads of ideas.
Best on show
The award for the “best garden on show” went to the garden entitled, “Contained by Design” installed by the team of Sharon Nixon, Zoe Holmes, Christa-Mari Mulder, Michelle Wecke and Mary-Ann Mottram.
The garden demonstrates how even the smallest space in an urban jungle can be turned into a rampant vegetable garden or a controlled xeriscape (a style of landscape design requiring little or no irrigation or other maintenance) with the use of containers.
“Their outstanding plant combinations and collage of visually appealing and structural succulents in an edible circle of inspiration, won the team admiration from the four judges,” says Gibb.
By far the most striking garden at the show and a sure winner of the people’s choice award for its bold impact is the “Mizu to Koishi” garden. A patio overlooking a zen sand and water garden, this design uses bold oriental design strokes. The installation of floating stepping stones leading to a railway sleeper deck lined with overflowing water pots is an ingenious, ambitious and visually creative idea.
The garden, “Bamboozled”, has a chain curtain with water streaming down the links as a focal water feature. The beam holding up the chain curtain is secured by two ladders planted up with white mandevilla. This contemporary townhouse garden with a decidedly oriental flavour is dominated by a glorious pebble pond and delicate waterfall.
A Highveld garden, entitled “Steps Away from Chaos” includes an element of forest, fynbos and restio plants. Tall acacias, bird-friendly sisal nests, benches and rich purple ribbon bush and yellow aloes offer a tranquil retreat.
Water-wise winner
Each year, Rand Water award a Water Wise Trophy to the most water wise garden at the show. This year, the award went to “Living Symphony”, a garden designed by Karol Cameron, Liza Coetzee, Antoinette Kolenic, Ashley Hempel, Nevison Mutanha and Beth Oberholzer.
“Living Symphony” is a formal garden which comprises four distinct areas, including a grey and blue parterre water feature area, and design features such as a hanging herb garden in planter boxes.
The “living” part of the title obviously refers to the plants, while “symphony” brings the classical tone to this work of art.
Charity initiative
For the 13th consecutive year, Choc (The Childhood Cancer Foundation of SA) and Lifestyle Home Garden will partner together, raising funds from the sale of the show portfolio available at Lifestyle Home Garden.
The portfolio, a full-colour magazine, includes the design and plant lists for all five gardens at the show so that you can re-create thesegardens in your own garden. - Saturday Star
* The Lifestyle Garden Design Show ends on May 27. Entrance is free. Venue: Lifestyle Home Garden, cnr Beyers Naudé and Ysterhout Avenue, Randpark Ridge. Open 7.30am to 5pm, seven days a week. Call Ursula on 011 792 5616 or visit www.lifestyle.co.za