PROJECTS
LA COTTE FARM, FRANSCHhOEK
A collaboration with Dominic Touwen to create a dream garden landscape at La Cotte Farm in Franschhoek, including the installation of 11 cottage gardens and an enchanting hotel entrance.
A gorgeous landscaping project in the heart of the Cape Winelands. La Cotte Orchard cottage gardens have been carefully orchestrated to flower primarily during the peak tourism season in summer. Indigenous hedges create privacy for bathers and provide protection from the prevailing winds, while mature trees offer much needed shade. Meandering gravel paths and an exquisite turquoise pool lie in the centre of each garden to complete the lazy summer Mediterranean feel. Each cottage enjoys spectacular panoramic views of the surrounding Franschhoek mountains.
A more subdued, grey and green planting palette of hedges and clipped spheres welcomes guests to the main hotel. A pool garden gives a fresh crisp feeling while the main hotel werf remains unplanted with lawns between the old, established oak trees. Stretching out in front of the hotel is a spectacular double-border, leading to a Dovecote and a vegetable garden.
MOUNT CAMDEBOO GAME RESERVE
Mount Camdeboo Game Reserve, at the foot of the Sneeuberg Mountain Range, is a pristine 14,000 hectare reserve with thorn scrub valleys, succulent hillsides, plunging gorges and vast mountain grasslands teeming with game. It’s a place of extraordinary plant and animal diversity.
As a passionate conservationist the owner sought to bring the feeling of wilderness to the front doorstep of the homesteads. Planting around Courtyard homestead includes predominantly indigenous species in warm colours intended to attract birds and insects. By planting aloes and other orange-flowered water-wise species, the reserve has malachite and collared sun-bird visitors. The traditional, white pool garden installed at Courtyard.was discovered by the Nyala who ate the rosebuds and day-lilies; this problem was solved by the installation of an electric fence around the property. A formal scented-herb and rose garden, created at Manor homestead, was inspired by Stellenberg Gardens.
With the help of Ernst van Jaarsveld of Babylonstoren, an indigenous nursery was established and a horticulturalist found, to maintain this facility.
belmond mount nelson hotel
As an intern to garden designer Franchesca Watson, Rowena was tasked with managing this project from start to finish. The Mount Nelson wanted to create a leafy, greenhouse atmosphere for guests enjoying a drink or high tea on the patio. A variety of ceramic and clay pots were planted with clipped spheres in different shades of green and grey in the entrance and patio gardens of the Hotel. The outside was brought indoors through the planting of hanging baskets and pots.
preserving a table mountain oasis
After clearing the overgrown terraces, a magnificent fruit tree orchard was planted to fulfill the owner’s dream of eating from his garden every day. Well-established plants were cleaned and forgotten corners were tamed and tidied. Indigenous species were brought in and in no time “wild and sexy” was ready for a new romance. Low-growing flowering plants were chosen to avoid obstructing the magnificent view of the city, silhouetted through established pine trees. An intense colour palette was selected to suit the owner’s flamboyant style. The combination of indigenous, citrus-scented plants with indigenous species has combined to create a work of art through “painting with flowers”.
