On Top Of The World In Paradise

This gem of an indigenous garden is worthy of a visit, if you love wildlife or gardens.

IN BRIEF:

Where: Northern KwaZulu-Natal

Size: 2000m2

Soil: Sandstone

Designer: Chris Dalzell of Chris Dalzell Landscapes

When I was asked to design and develop the gardens at the newly established Babanango Game Reserve in northern KwaZulu-Natal, the brief was to create gardens that would complement the natural vegetation that exists on the 22 000-hectare reserve, using water-wise plants as well as plants that attract butterflies and birds and provide flowers throughout the year.

On visiting the site for the first time in January 2019, I was struck by the enormous diversity of the flora, as well as how many of these plants could be used within the new gardens. This became my new goal: to use the plants from the reserve in the new gardens. I came back to the reserve at different times of the year to see which plants flowered at what time of the year, and to draw up a list of plants that would then be used within these gardens. Flowering trees, aloes, terrestrial orchids, succulents, bulbs, grasses and, of course, weathered driftwood and large rocks were carefully selected and meticulously placed to create a garden that felt natural.

Babanango Game Reserve is situated just three hours from Durban and 50km from Vryheid on a breathtakingly beautiful grass plateau, magnificent with its rolling grasslands, thornveld and 23km of frontage on the White Umfolozi River. A game reserve in the making, and a trailblazing one at that, it is home to a diverse range of wildlife species and mixed biomes.