Pockets of nature in the city

I stepped into the world of renowned landscape architect Patrick Watson, and entered his magical land of mini forests, glorious banks of indigenous plants, delightful ponds and pathways leading to wonders at every turn. Nature would smile at its perfect harmony.

He describes himself as a gardener, but is much more — an ecologist, a man of nature, who has honed his craft over many decades, and walks quietly through gardens, imbibing the landscape, observing and formulating his vision. His knowledge embraces more than horticulture: architecture, geology, history, birds and insects, all necessary for creating eco gardens.

Watson took me on a stroll through the gardens of architect Herbert Baker’s Villa Arcadia in Parktown, now the headquarters of Hollard. He spends years nurturing gardens, returning periodically to instruct the resident gardeners, or popping in a plant he has found elsewhere.

He has retained original Baker stone walls and pathways, and enhanced them by extending the paths or replicating walls with stone and soil, into which he has grown a range of hanging plants and ferns. Original ponds have been kept, and water plants introduced. The path winds up the ridge, with Watson stopping to check on beds, a mini stinkwood forest he has planted, or beds that have seeded themselves.

In his oversized khaki raincoat he walks lightly in nature, saying he thinks he inherited the gardening gene. “I believe it’s 90% genes.” His father was an architect and gardener, among other gardener forebears. He remembers knowing plant names at the age of three and walking up Table Mountain at nine, naming plants.

His first big design jobs were for the Oppenheimers at Brenthurst and Sol Kerzner at Sun City. He has designed gardens at Victoria Yards, the Saxon Hotel, Nirox and the Spier estate, among many others. One of the biggest ones is for Douw Steyn at Steyn City in Midrand. Watson spent 10 years growing trees and plants in a nursery on site before planting began, and has planted 1-million trees on the vast estate.

On a walk with him, he stops and explains that Baker would have been happy with the windy path he has created up the ridge, and that he has left the characterful trees planted more than 100 years ago. Watson has thoughtfully created smooth paths alongside the original stone paths for those in stilettos. He has left the “colonial plants”, such as the jacarandas and palm trees, in a nod to Baker and Florence Phillips, for whom the house was designed.

“He uses plants, colours, landform and space as a painter or sculptor might work with oils, canvas or bronze, and from them he creates visual and emotional experiences,” writes environmental historian Jane Carruthers in the foreword to Veld: The Gardens and Landscapes of Patrick Watson by Garreth van Niekerk.

“He is a free spirit whose work is always fresh, inspiring and interesting.”

Soweto bird walk

What started as a bunch of boys on BMXs trapping birds and swimming in the Moroka Dam in Soweto, resulted in Raymond Rampolokeng finding his passion in life as a bird guide. “I have been bird guiding for the past 21 years,” he says.

I met him at the Orlando Dam and its surrounding wetlands. As we walked, he pointed to birds hovering over the reeds, raising his binoculars to his eyes to identify them.

He started in a corporate job, and while taking a sabbatical his uncle encouraged him to give back to his community. This resulted in him planting trees in Soweto suburb Chiawelo, becoming involved in waste recycling and partnering with an NGO and the British and Canadian high commissions. He was involved in the 2001 World Summit on Sustainable Development and hosted Jane Goodall’s organisation, Roots & Shoots, as well as former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, who planted a tree in Chiawelo.

“We developed a tourism component. Tshiawelo Cycles and Afribikes donated bikes, which were used for bike tours.”

That evolved into wetland management tours, and Rampolokeng then trained with BirdLife South Africa. His Soweto tours are based around the colourful Orlando Towers and dam, and the nearby Enoch Sontonga koppies. There are also cycling tours along the Klipspruit wetlands. He also does bird tours further afield — the Johannesburg Botanical Gardens in Emmarentia, the Walter Sisulu Botanical Gardens in Roodepoort, Suikerbosrand, and the Marievale Bird Sanctuary in Nigel.

“There are amazing birding hotspots in Joburg,” he enthuses.

As we walk, he points to a purple swamphen, orange-breasted waxbill, and a little rush warbler, rising from the reeds and gliding over the water.

Walking up the Sontonga koppie, he stops and says, “Hear that call? That’s the Diederik cuckoo”, as he raises his binoculars to his eyes again.

The cuckoo is cunning. It never makes its own nest but uses the nests of other birds such as sunbirds, warblers and shrikes. The cuckoos lay their eggs alongside those of the host, which then feed the cuckoo chicks. The chicks fool the host with their upstretched mouths that have the same yellow edging, but they are bigger, so are fed more and mature quicker.

In 2011 there were fish in the dam, but, pollution has killed them. It’s the training ground of the Soweto Canoe and Recreation Club, and the Soweto Canoe Club, but birds live happily alongside humans in boats.

Melville Koppies

I learnt intriguing things on my Melville Koppies walk with Jenny Grice, a koppies committee member and a guide in this slice of indigenous heaven.

For example, parasitic mistletoe grows out of a host branch. Termites wait for rain, which softens their hard mound, allowing them to exit their nest as flying ants, while worker ants rapidly cover the exit holes to protect the queen. The buffalo thorn, or wag ’n bietjie, is a significant tree in African culture — a twig is laid on the hospital bed where a person died and taken to the person’s home, allowing the spirit to return home. Algae and fungi in lichen growing on branches have a symbiotic relationship — the fungi absorb water and minerals, while the algae provide food.

The leaves of the wild peach contain cyanide, but garden acraea butterflies, which have evolved to tolerate the poison, lay their eggs on the leaves, which provide food for the caterpillars. But there’s a twist — sometimes a wasp lays its eggs inside the caterpillar, and its babies eat the caterpillar.

There are other things to learn within the 50ha central Melville Koppies, a fenced, protected section. There is a restored 500-year-old furnace belonging to Sotho/Tswana people, the area’s first farmers, who crushed rocks and smelted them to extract the iron. The San walked these ridges as well. Grice points to a Bushman’s poison tree, used for poisoning arrow tips, which have been found here.

“The vegetation of the koppies is entirely indigenous and is a remarkable example of the richness of highveld grasses, flowers, and trees so close to the city centre,” states the Melville Koppies website.

Notes:

Central Mellville Koppies is open on Sundays between 8am and 11.30am. The cost is R100 for adults and R50 for children under 18.

For guided walks at Villa Arcadia, email claire@taropark.biz.

Soweto bird walks can be booked through bayofgracetours@gmail.com.