You know, not all gardens start with a love of plants. Sure, plants are important, perhaps even a requirement (some would argue) for a ‘garden’ to be a garden. But, as this amazing South African plot shows, they don’t have to be the raison d’etre for creating an amazing outdoor place. This a place where creativity and an abundance of resources (namely rocks) collide to make something extraordinary.
The beginnings of this garden were simple: Geoffrey Armstrong and Wendy Vincent (both artists) started collecting things they loved – specifically rocks.
Monolithic Cairns around the lily pond
As I covet these brilliant stacked structures, I can’t help but wonder how on earth they were created by Geoffrey and Wendy. Like all good art, the question of ‘how did they do it?’ lingers at the back of your mind.
A South African Rock Garden
Cactus and stone sculptures surround a concrete lily pond.
The collections grew, and new collections were created -including plants – which friends passed along.
A Rock Garden is Born of Necessity
The story of their garden reminds me of here, where I live in New England. We have remnants of stone walls everywhere.
Our stone walls are protected when they follow property lines, but you will find them crisscrossing properties and even in the woods, where you have to wonder why someone would have created them there.
You have to remember – farmers don’t want rocks in their fields, and New England’s hills were covered in early settlers’ farms. Farming gave us the stone walls of New England just like it also produced this beautiful garden in Magaliesberg, South Africa.
As a sculptor, Geoffry loved the rocks and happily accepted them from neighbors. Bit by bit, slowly, over 10 years, the pair have created an amazing garden that they never really set out to build.
The Addition of Cast Off Plants
Along the way, the gardenerrs also became members of Operation Wildflower (OWF), which is an association of plant lovers who save plants from being destroyed when development transforms a piece of natural vegetation into a township, road, dam, mine, etc.
OWF members collect and replant threatened plants on their own properties rather than seeing them bulldozed and lost. This is how many of the large aloes and agaves came to find a home here.
South Africa is blessed with a rich botanical history, and this group hopes to help it remain the pride of the nation.
From rocks to plants to odd bits of wood, It is extraordinary to realize what you can create from everyone else’s cast offs.
An African Red stone landscape of beautiful rocks.
The garden started with a love of rocks, arranging them, sculpting them, and making artistic arrangements with them.
The scale of the stone structures is hard to overstate. This is a magnum opus of rockeries.
Visiting the Garden at Magaliesberg
If you would like to visit the Garden at Magaliesberg- Make an appointment through their website.
A full article at Visi provides more information about the garden (see more images) and its creators.
All Images from Visi and Magaliesberg.
See this article for more information about the art and artists.