0:00:02 > 0:00:06I believe that a really good way to understand a culture is through its gardens.
0:00:06 > 0:00:12This is an extraordinary journey to visit 80 inspiring gardens from all over the world.
0:00:12 > 0:00:17Some are very well known like the Taj Mahal or the Alhambra.
0:00:17 > 0:00:22And I'm also challenging my idea of what a garden actually is.
0:00:22 > 0:00:25So I'm visiting gardens that float on the Amazon,
0:00:25 > 0:00:27a strange fantasy in the jungle,
0:00:27 > 0:00:31as well as the private homes of great designers,
0:00:31 > 0:00:33and the desert flowering in a garden.
0:00:33 > 0:00:39And wherever I go, I shall be meeting people that share my own passion for gardens on my epic quest
0:00:39 > 0:00:44to see the world through 80 of its most fascinating and beautiful gardens.
0:00:57 > 0:01:00This week I have come to South Africa.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03It is the home of some of our best loved garden plants,
0:01:03 > 0:01:07which grow in some of the most dramatic scenery in the world.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12Yet, I have avoided coming here until now.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16I grew up with a hatred of the racial segregation under the apartheid regime,
0:01:16 > 0:01:21and felt that to be an impassable ideological barrier to the enjoyment of the beauties of South Africa.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25And that view, I confess, fossilised and blocked
0:01:25 > 0:01:28all floral temptations to visit.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32But, that's history now. And, although I would be dishonest
0:01:32 > 0:01:35if I said that I didn't bring a bit of that baggage with me,
0:01:35 > 0:01:39I really want to see this extraordinary beautiful country,
0:01:39 > 0:01:44to meet the people and, of course, to see as many gardens as I can.
0:01:45 > 0:01:49I'm starting in Cape Town to see how gardens reflect the emergence
0:01:49 > 0:01:52of South Africa as a nation, and I shall visit the famous
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Kirstenbosch Botanic Gardens, amongst others.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58And then going on to the Drakensberg mountains
0:01:58 > 0:02:04to see some of our familiar garden plants growing in their exhilarating natural environment.
0:02:04 > 0:02:07Finally I go to Johannesburg
0:02:07 > 0:02:10to see how one of South Africa's grandest gardens is changing,
0:02:10 > 0:02:16as well as a township garden that has desperately limited resources but is rich in hope and inspiration.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40Cape Town sits beneath the famous silhouette of Table Mountain,
0:02:40 > 0:02:44and this provides the backdrop for my first garden.
0:02:50 > 0:02:56I've decided to start my journey here at Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden at the base of Table Mountain,
0:02:56 > 0:03:01because it's one of the very few botanic gardens that just has native plants.
0:03:01 > 0:03:08So if you want to see all the plants of South Africa in one place, well, this is where you have to come.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19The gardens themselves extend to almost 100 carefully tended acres,
0:03:19 > 0:03:23but this is only a small proportion of the 1,300 acre estate
0:03:23 > 0:03:26that runs right to the very top of Table Mountain
0:03:26 > 0:03:30with a mixture of woodland and the indigenous scrub known as Fynbos.
0:03:35 > 0:03:38The land was bought by Cecil Rhodes in 1895
0:03:38 > 0:03:42and bequeathed to the South African people at his death in 1902.
0:03:42 > 0:03:45In 1913, the National Botanic Garden of South Africa,
0:03:45 > 0:03:50devoted entirely to indigenous plants, was set up on the site.
0:03:50 > 0:03:55I met one of the senior horticulturalists, Cherise Viljoen, who offered to show me round.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57How many South African plants are there here?
0:03:57 > 0:04:00- In the garden?- Yeah. - There are over 7,000 species.
0:04:00 > 0:04:01Oh, that's unbelievable!
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Yeah, and there's still more to go around.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07We're still adding to the collections every day, and to the garden.
0:04:10 > 0:04:12Amongst this huge diversity of plants,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16the garden specialises in local Cape flora.
0:04:16 > 0:04:18The showiest of these are the Proteas,
0:04:18 > 0:04:22of which there are over 350 different types.
0:04:28 > 0:04:33- So these are the pincushion forms now.- What's interesting is to see a mass of them.
0:04:33 > 0:04:37They do make a fantastic display, and really bring it home to you.
0:04:37 > 0:04:41And they've got quite a sweet common name, it's firokise in Afrikaans,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44and it means matches, or matchsticks.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47- Can I pick it up?- Yeah.
0:04:47 > 0:04:50- It's perfect, isn't it?- You just need a flint.- See, that's charming.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54And the thing that you always find is the birds are always on them,
0:04:54 > 0:04:57sipping nectar or digging for a seed.
0:04:59 > 0:05:04Then Cherise took me to see the King Protea, the national flower,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08expecting, I'm sure, delight and rapture.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11But I fear my reaction proved something of a disappointment.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15I've got something really special to show you, if you'd like to step in.
0:05:15 > 0:05:21- It says, "Don't step in the beds." I like that.- Yes, but you're with me, you may step in. And here it is.
0:05:21 > 0:05:23What do you think of this?
0:05:23 > 0:05:26It's an ugly flower, isn't it?
0:05:26 > 0:05:29It's a... Now, you see this...
0:05:29 > 0:05:31I've seen pictures of this sort of thing.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34It's not doing anything for me, I have to say. Erm...
0:05:34 > 0:05:36Well, it reminds you of an artichoke.
0:05:36 > 0:05:39Arti is right. It's artificial, rather than artichoke.
0:05:39 > 0:05:41- But there we go.- OK!
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Well, you can't like them all.
0:05:47 > 0:05:54But the wild pelargoniums growing as sprawling shrubs that Cherise showed me were a delight.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58These are the ancestors of our familiar cultivated regal pelargoniums,
0:05:58 > 0:06:03and it was strange to see something so powerfully connected to my childhood growing here.
0:06:09 > 0:06:11You just never see that.
0:06:11 > 0:06:13This great drift on big plants.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18This is a very natural planting, this is how you would come across it growing wild on a mountainside.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27Something is smelling wonderful.
0:06:27 > 0:06:28It'll be the salvia.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31- Is this a salvia?- It's a salvia.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35- It doesn't look like a salvia. - It's our wild African salvia.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39Oh! It's lovely. It's lemony and musky and warm and...
0:06:39 > 0:06:42It definitely contributes to the Fynbos scent that you get off the...
0:06:42 > 0:06:45the veldt when you're going through it.
0:06:45 > 0:06:46You see, if I'm honest I think
0:06:46 > 0:06:51of...words like the veldt is a very butch sort of word.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53It doesn't say musky, lemony fragrance.
0:06:53 > 0:06:57No, it doesn't. Wild fields don't...
0:06:57 > 0:06:58work for us.
0:06:58 > 0:07:00Veldt is just veldt. It's a very...
0:07:00 > 0:07:05it's an Afrikaans word, but it's traditionally used to describe the wild areas in the Cape.
0:07:08 > 0:07:14South Africa is home to 24,000 different species of flowering plants,
0:07:14 > 0:07:16that's one tenth of all those that grow on Earth.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21There is also a small group of plants that were here long
0:07:21 > 0:07:24before flowers even evolved - the Cycads.
0:07:25 > 0:07:31Cycads look like palm trees, but they date back 200 million years
0:07:31 > 0:07:35and haven't changed at all since they finished evolving 50 million years ago.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43If you had to go back 150 million years, it would pretty much look
0:07:43 > 0:07:47exactly like that, except there would be a great big dinosaur behind it.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49So they haven't evolved at all?
0:07:49 > 0:07:51Very, very little.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54And then, amongst this Jurassic foliage,
0:07:54 > 0:07:59I spotted something that I found as thrilling to me as any dinosaur.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Well, here we are with the Cycads, and also an owlet.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04A Spotted Eagle Owl.
0:08:04 > 0:08:06A Spotted Eagle, it's beautiful.
0:08:06 > 0:08:08- Monty, have you spotted her? - Oh! I can see her.
0:08:08 > 0:08:11- Good! The mother owl.- How amazing.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16You're a very beautiful girl.
0:08:16 > 0:08:19Isn't that amazing? Isn't that just an extraordinary experience?
0:08:19 > 0:08:25- It's nice to see what the chick is going to look like when he loses all his fluff as well.- We're blessed.
0:08:28 > 0:08:32Monty, if we go down here, I can show you a really horrid Cycad.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36It's kind of like organic barbed wire.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38Aren't they truly, truly horrid?
0:08:38 > 0:08:40Encephalartos horridus.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43They're a spiky thing, they really are.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46I guess when you get spiked by that, you know you've been spiked.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49- And that is entirely designed to stop dinosaur jaws?- Yes.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53See, I think they're more beautiful than the King Protea.
0:08:53 > 0:08:57- I knew you were gonna fall back to that one!- It's true!
0:09:02 > 0:09:04I was a bit daunted...
0:09:04 > 0:09:07when I came here, and I think that was as much as anything
0:09:07 > 0:09:12through my sense of not knowing enough about South African plants.
0:09:12 > 0:09:16One of the good things about today for me is that I realise I know more than I thought I did.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24However, the majority here is new and unusual,
0:09:24 > 0:09:28and it's really good to see them all in setting and in context.
0:09:28 > 0:09:31That's what a botanical garden is like - a reference library.
0:09:31 > 0:09:36Put that against this extraordinary backdrop, it really is so beautiful,
0:09:36 > 0:09:40and then that makes for a fascinating and beautiful way
0:09:40 > 0:09:42to begin this journey.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45But I think with this experience, and feeling a bit more confident,
0:09:45 > 0:09:49I think the next step is to go and see these same plants
0:09:49 > 0:09:50in a much more human context.
0:09:50 > 0:09:54Somewhere modern, somewhere quirky and uttlerly different to this.
0:09:59 > 0:10:03So I'm going a couple of hours east of the city to Franschhoek,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06which is a small town near to Stellenbosch,
0:10:06 > 0:10:09the intellectual centre for Afrikaners.
0:10:09 > 0:10:13As we travel, I get a glimpse of a different facet of life in South Africa.
0:10:13 > 0:10:14Just on the left...
0:10:14 > 0:10:19is a township which is just a series of shacks, tiny shacks,
0:10:19 > 0:10:22looking more like allotment sheds than houses.
0:10:28 > 0:10:33We leave Cape Town and come into a countryside of orchards and vineyards
0:10:33 > 0:10:36at the foot of the high mountains that defined the limits
0:10:36 > 0:10:39of the Cape colonisation for centuries.
0:10:39 > 0:10:40The Huguenots, arriving in 1688,
0:10:40 > 0:10:45based their Vineyards there and Franschhoek means "French Corner".
0:10:45 > 0:10:48I'm here to see the garden of Henk Scholtz,
0:10:48 > 0:10:50a garden designer and artist.
0:10:58 > 0:11:02This is a small garden that circles around the house.
0:11:03 > 0:11:07The front path runs between beds containing native strelitzias,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11framed and contained by tightly clipped privet hedges.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14At the back, Henk has a semi-circular lawn
0:11:14 > 0:11:17and a verandah that runs the length of the house
0:11:17 > 0:11:19with stupendous views out to the mountains.
0:11:19 > 0:11:23You do have this amazing borrowed landscape.
0:11:23 > 0:11:27I mean, it is about as dramatic as it could be, isn't it?
0:11:27 > 0:11:29No, I mean it's spectacular.
0:11:29 > 0:11:34And what do you think is the secret of a small garden? Because there is a great failing it seems to me.
0:11:34 > 0:11:38A lot of people say, "If only I had a bigger garden, everything would be OK."
0:11:38 > 0:11:40I don't agree with that at all.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43For me it's what you do with that space, number one.
0:11:43 > 0:11:48First of all it's to divide it up in as many spaces as possible.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51It doesn't have to be a solid wall or a solid hedge.
0:11:51 > 0:11:56If you step down the steps, down to this lawn space, you're in a total different room.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00I love this space.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02I enjoy this space.
0:12:02 > 0:12:05For me, this is my palette where I play.
0:12:05 > 0:12:10I don't think I've ever seen a garden so intensely detailed.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14Some of this is playful and some very practical, like the steep angle or batter on the hedges.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18In the UK you really don't see that. No. They tend to be cut straight.
0:12:18 > 0:12:24That's for the maximum sun on both sides, and you get a better growth, and that avoids all the dead ends.
0:12:24 > 0:12:26- And what is this?- This is ligustrum.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29- It is a privet.- Yeah.- You see, you very rarely see a privet,
0:12:29 > 0:12:31in the UK, used for a low hedge.
0:12:31 > 0:12:32Really? Yeah.
0:12:33 > 0:12:39Between the privet hedges and the boundary fence were clipped balls of plumbago,
0:12:39 > 0:12:43which I had always thought of as a sprawly house plant.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Henk doesn't only shape his plants, but his sculptures made
0:12:47 > 0:12:51from recycled materials are also an important part of the garden.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55Floating implements, just blow in the wind.
0:12:55 > 0:12:59Lovely. Really beautiful. And I like your water feature, I suppose is what it is.
0:12:59 > 0:13:04- That's basically an old South African version of Feng Shui.- Right. OK!
0:13:05 > 0:13:09- That's my security guard.- Yeah.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11- I can see she's... - With the Medusa outfit.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14She's a beauty. A great beauty.
0:13:15 > 0:13:21Everything in the garden is tweaked, trimmed or adorned. I love...
0:13:21 > 0:13:25- as obviously one would, all the little touches in this garden.- Thank you.
0:13:25 > 0:13:29- And there are a lot. - It's found objects.
0:13:30 > 0:13:35Although small, at every turn, there is a new composed view.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37The lawn is describing the circle.
0:13:37 > 0:13:39- Absolutely.- And I really like that.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47And this is lovely.
0:13:47 > 0:13:50I really like this. The way that...
0:13:50 > 0:13:54it's enclosed in and this... the curves of the hedge.
0:13:54 > 0:13:58It basically grows on you. It's like an organic thing that's alive.
0:13:58 > 0:14:01You can basically shake this thing, I mean, it's like...
0:14:01 > 0:14:05But that's what we call ragoda, ragoda starta like saltbush.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09Smell your hands, and then you'll stop doing that.
0:14:09 > 0:14:12It smells, dear viewer...
0:14:12 > 0:14:14of slightly off fish!
0:14:15 > 0:14:18- Now he tells me. - But it clips beautifully.
0:14:18 > 0:14:19Yeah, indeed.
0:14:23 > 0:14:28Henk told me that he trims the entire garden every 12 days throughout the year,
0:14:28 > 0:14:33and the combination of his tight clipping and idiosyncratic playfulness is evident everywhere.
0:14:34 > 0:14:39And the flowering plants seem to thrive spectacularly on his regime.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45It's the most floriferous trachelospermum
0:14:45 > 0:14:46- I have ever seen.- Sure.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49I must say, it's extremely happy.
0:14:49 > 0:14:51And that's just one plant.
0:14:51 > 0:14:54- That's one plant that's in that space.- Amazing.
0:14:54 > 0:14:56Yeah.
0:15:00 > 0:15:06And suddenly, this muted palette becomes shocking pink with the bougainvillea.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11- And I love the... Where I'm standing now, that curve is perfect.- Yeah.
0:15:13 > 0:15:15Very beautiful indeed.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22And this is probably, the most photogenic garden I've ever been to.
0:15:22 > 0:15:25Everywhere you look, you turn your head and there's a picture.
0:15:32 > 0:15:39I love the way that it's the expression of one man's work, that it's personal and it's quirky.
0:15:39 > 0:15:42The relationship between the sculpture and the plants
0:15:42 > 0:15:46and the design, the whole thing has been fabulous.
0:15:46 > 0:15:51And I particularly like the way that it's used indigenous plants,
0:15:51 > 0:15:55that it's an expression of South African gardening and art,
0:15:55 > 0:15:57and after all that's what I came here to see.
0:15:57 > 0:16:02So that's... that's been very inspirational.
0:16:02 > 0:16:05But the next stop is a complete contrast.
0:16:05 > 0:16:07I want to back to the middle of Cape Town,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10and really see where all this began.
0:16:10 > 0:16:16See where and how the first South African gardens started.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27The first South African garden is bound up with the story
0:16:27 > 0:16:29of the Dutch East India company.
0:16:32 > 0:16:35By the time that their ships would round the Cape Of Good Hope
0:16:35 > 0:16:38on their way to the Far East, the crews would be exhausted
0:16:38 > 0:16:45and often suffering terribly from scurvy, after anything up to six months at sea after leaving Holland.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Table Mountain stood out
0:16:47 > 0:16:50from an otherwise very level and bland coastline.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52This meant that sailors used it to navigate
0:16:52 > 0:16:57and it became a major landmark on the long, long journey.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01So in 1652, a small group of men and women colonisers set ashore
0:17:01 > 0:17:05at its base, specifically to cultivate ground that could supply
0:17:05 > 0:17:09the ships with fresh fruit and vegetables.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17This was immediately a success
0:17:17 > 0:17:21and that initial garden expanded to become The Company Garden.
0:17:21 > 0:17:24Most of it still survives as a public park
0:17:24 > 0:17:26in the middle of the city.
0:17:26 > 0:17:31And this tree is a remnant from that first garden.
0:17:31 > 0:17:33This is Pyrus communis. It's a pear.
0:17:33 > 0:17:36It's got these evergreen,
0:17:36 > 0:17:39rather leathery leaves that are not typical of a pear.
0:17:39 > 0:17:43But I've got one in my own garden. It's indigenous to northern Europe,
0:17:43 > 0:17:45and this is a survivor from those days.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51People didn't found the initial colony of Cape Town on this site
0:17:51 > 0:17:54because of the harbour, the natural harbour here was rather poor.
0:17:55 > 0:18:01The reason that people settled here was because of the clouds on the mountain.
0:18:01 > 0:18:07The clouds condense, water falls, it percolates down through the mountain, and then reappears here
0:18:07 > 0:18:11on the flat ground as springs, which meant that they had a constant source of irrigation.
0:18:11 > 0:18:15And that's why they settled here.
0:18:21 > 0:18:24The Cape has a Mediterranean climate,
0:18:24 > 0:18:27which is wet in winter but bone dry and hot in summer.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31So having a constant water supply was vital to the garden's success.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41This is one of the original springs
0:18:41 > 0:18:44that was used for the garden, and of course the water which has come
0:18:44 > 0:18:49down from the top of Table Mountain filtered down and is still running.
0:18:55 > 0:18:59Although in its heyday this was five and a half hectares
0:18:59 > 0:19:04of very organised, rectilinear Dutch vegetable growing,
0:19:04 > 0:19:09it soon proved to be not adequate for the needs of both the colony
0:19:09 > 0:19:11and also the ships that kept coming in.
0:19:11 > 0:19:15So company employees were given permission to set up farms
0:19:15 > 0:19:18which could supplement the original Company Garden produce.
0:19:18 > 0:19:21In the garden, the fruit and vegetables were gradually replaced
0:19:21 > 0:19:26by ornamental plants. By 1840 it was a full blown pleasure garden.
0:19:26 > 0:19:32But the garden remains the heart of Cape Town and the birth of modern, colonised, South Africa.
0:19:46 > 0:19:51Whereas The Company Garden was very much a corporate place with practical beginnings
0:19:51 > 0:19:56that became a pleasure garden, I've come here to Stellenberg which is a private house.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00It's the oldest privately owned house in the whole of South Africa,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02which I've heard is a very beautiful garden.
0:20:02 > 0:20:08But, perhaps more interestingly, also should tell me something of South Africa's colonial history.
0:20:18 > 0:20:23Stellenberg was part of the cultural mix that colonised the cape from the outset.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28It was built in 1742 by an Englishman called John White,
0:20:28 > 0:20:30who then changed his name to Jan de Witt
0:20:30 > 0:20:33and built it in a Dutch colonial style.
0:20:34 > 0:20:38The five-acre garden is set around the house
0:20:38 > 0:20:43and has a distinctly European feel. It is grand, elegant and charming.
0:20:45 > 0:20:50Unfortunately, the weather turned only too European as well.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56Oh, it's typical. I come to South Africa in its summer
0:20:56 > 0:20:59and it's pelting with rain, really really wet.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04But I'm English, and I won't let a little rain come between
0:21:04 > 0:21:08me and a beautiful garden, which even in the wet, it clearly is.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15What's interesting about this
0:21:15 > 0:21:18is that it's a white garden,
0:21:18 > 0:21:21with this white parterre and a white house.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25A house which is very Dutch, not at all English.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28Now they call this a white garden and all the plants are shades of white,
0:21:28 > 0:21:32but in fact it's a green garden and I think that's true of all so-called white gardens
0:21:32 > 0:21:35because the white makes the green seem greener.
0:21:35 > 0:21:42And the fact that it's so wet today makes the whole thing shine with that extraordinary green intensity.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Well, it's always nice to see a vegetable garden,
0:21:56 > 0:22:01and this is a very carefully mannered, tasteful affair.
0:22:03 > 0:22:05You feel that...
0:22:05 > 0:22:08they're not having to survive off these veg.
0:22:08 > 0:22:12They're growing for as much the way they look as they are, but it's lovely.
0:22:21 > 0:22:26I'm not letting the rain dampen my spirits and, in fact, there are very nice touches.
0:22:26 > 0:22:31For instance, these steps. Very very shallow steps, almost a slope.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34It looks wonderful, it's got real style.
0:22:34 > 0:22:39And, as I go round the world, I always see little bits and pieces and I think, "I'll nick that.
0:22:39 > 0:22:43"I'll use that for my own garden." And that's one of those things.
0:23:00 > 0:23:06See, that's interesting. You've got the melianthus, which to me is exotic and beautiful
0:23:06 > 0:23:09and a very South African plant, and then the canna behind it.
0:23:09 > 0:23:14And a fantastic brunsvigia. I mean look at the size of the fantastic,
0:23:14 > 0:23:17huge flowering trumpets.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34Here I am in...the end of November,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38with delphiniums and roses,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43and verbena bonariensis and mulleins and foxgloves.
0:23:43 > 0:23:46All the elements
0:23:46 > 0:23:49of a lovely English mixed border.
0:23:54 > 0:23:58All the tricks of the horticultural design trade are being wheeled out.
0:23:58 > 0:24:01Parterres with santolina and lavender,
0:24:01 > 0:24:04the Luchens seat painted a tasteful colour.
0:24:04 > 0:24:10You've seen it all before, but the truth is, the reason why you've seen it before is because it is lovely.
0:24:12 > 0:24:17Stellenberg is a garden made with great care and love,
0:24:17 > 0:24:20and the Dutch house and English garden
0:24:20 > 0:24:24measure out a colonial past with great elegance and style.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29Its heritage is colonial but deeply rooted in the culture of Northern Europe.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33However, having seen this,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38I now think I need to sort of escape all those English influences,
0:24:38 > 0:24:42and just find something that is neat South Africa. Undiluted.
0:24:47 > 0:24:51So I'm heading off down the Cape Peninsula, just south of the city.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02I've come on down the Cape, and the rain has cleared, thank goodness.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05I've stopped just to take an overview because, from here,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08I can look back and see Table Mountain
0:25:08 > 0:25:12with its tablecloth of cloud still on it, Kirstenbosch on the slopes,
0:25:12 > 0:25:18and Stellenberg where I've just come from, tucked in down below that with cloud still round it.
0:25:18 > 0:25:19Probably still raining there.
0:25:19 > 0:25:23But up here it's windy, but for the moment it's dry.
0:25:25 > 0:25:28Table Mountain is at the head of a range of mountains
0:25:28 > 0:25:32which run down the Cape Peninsula to the Cape of Good Hope,
0:25:32 > 0:25:34which is the symbolic southern tip of Africa.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38It was originally known as the Cape of Storms and is still a tricky
0:25:38 > 0:25:42piece of water whose rocky coast is littered with shipwrecks.
0:25:46 > 0:25:49This is the setting for my last Cape Garden,
0:25:49 > 0:25:53created by Donovan van der Heyden and called "Li'l Eden".
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Donovan's house and garden is part of an unofficial shanty town
0:26:04 > 0:26:08of wooden and tin huts thrown up cheek by jowl
0:26:08 > 0:26:11above the fishing port of Hout Bay.
0:26:15 > 0:26:18His garden is a series of terraces on the hillside
0:26:18 > 0:26:22looking out over the blue waters of the bay.
0:26:24 > 0:26:29What was your own inspiration to get it going?
0:26:29 > 0:26:35From the mountains. I've spent a lot of time roaming the mountains, going through the water streams.
0:26:35 > 0:26:37You know, studying the fixtures and,
0:26:37 > 0:26:43you know, the forms of the plants and how they compliment each other, their relationship.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46What you're describing is very sophisticated
0:26:46 > 0:26:49understanding of nature and how it works.
0:26:49 > 0:26:54I take it from the people that we as a local people here descend from.
0:26:54 > 0:26:56They lived close to nature, you know.
0:26:56 > 0:27:01They added harmony with nature and to me, it's really...
0:27:01 > 0:27:03That is my inspiration and maintaining that.
0:27:03 > 0:27:06In terms of this garden here,
0:27:06 > 0:27:11is it constantly evolving, or has it reached a point at which
0:27:11 > 0:27:15- you're happy with it and it's staying?- No.
0:27:15 > 0:27:17I don't think I'll ever be satisfied.
0:27:17 > 0:27:21In terms of my garden, I see myself as an artist.
0:27:21 > 0:27:25With an artist there's always new scenery, something new that inspires
0:27:25 > 0:27:27him that he wants to capture on canvas.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31And similarly with me, when I walk around in nature there's always
0:27:31 > 0:27:35something captivating there that I see and it's like, wow!
0:27:35 > 0:27:39You know I must... And then I come to my garden and I experiment and I play around with the rocks.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44You know, and similarly as an artist, with textures, colours, you know?
0:27:44 > 0:27:45So, yeah.
0:27:45 > 0:27:49- It's always changing. - What do your neighbours think?
0:27:49 > 0:27:53They haven't all got gardens, what do they think about what you do?
0:27:53 > 0:27:55It's an informal settlement, a squatter camp
0:27:55 > 0:27:59and any available open space is utilised
0:27:59 > 0:28:02to put up another bungalow for someone to live in, you know.
0:28:02 > 0:28:07So, when you take space and make a garden, you know you get challenged,
0:28:07 > 0:28:09and this was met in the same way.
0:28:12 > 0:28:15But the community does benefit directly from Donovan's garden.
0:28:15 > 0:28:18He's running a project to introduce local children
0:28:18 > 0:28:22to the value and pleasures of gardening and growing plants.
0:28:22 > 0:28:26The parallel basically that if you plant a seed,
0:28:26 > 0:28:31and you water, then you nurture it and you see it growing and maturing into a well-established tree.
0:28:31 > 0:28:35You pick the fruits of it, and at the end of the day you can enjoy the fruits.
0:28:35 > 0:28:39The same way, the elders knew that if they planted the seeds in us
0:28:39 > 0:28:44as young people back then, the fruits would ultimately be reaped when we are grown.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46We would be taking on that kind of work.
0:28:46 > 0:28:51We've got an interest as humans to protect what we have.
0:28:51 > 0:28:56Donovan and his vision of a society literally growing out of the soil,
0:28:56 > 0:29:00and the plants of the Cape seem to me to make his tiny garden
0:29:00 > 0:29:02on the shanty hillside truly beautiful.
0:29:04 > 0:29:08But now it's time to leave the Cape and, before I visit my next garden,
0:29:08 > 0:29:13I want to see some more of that spectacular South African landscape.
0:29:13 > 0:29:18So I'm going to take myself off inland to the Drakensberg Mountains,
0:29:18 > 0:29:21if for no other reason than that's the place where most of the plants
0:29:21 > 0:29:26that I recognise as being South African in my own garden come from.
0:29:29 > 0:29:33This means that I am now travelling east to the Drakensburg,
0:29:33 > 0:29:35or Dragon's Mountains.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42It's a curious thing that so many of the plants of this region,
0:29:42 > 0:29:45which are so different and so far from home,
0:29:45 > 0:29:48have adapted so well to our own gardens.
0:29:48 > 0:29:55And you also have the truly exotic growing here almost carelessly.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57Can you just stop here a sec?
0:29:58 > 0:29:59Look at that!
0:30:02 > 0:30:04Here, just by the side of the road,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07you've got arum lilies growing like a weed.
0:30:10 > 0:30:14This is a wet bit on the margins.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17And here it is, look at that.
0:30:17 > 0:30:23People in London will go and pay a fortune for a bunch of those!
0:30:23 > 0:30:25That is, I think,
0:30:25 > 0:30:28Zantedeschia Albomaculata.
0:30:30 > 0:30:33And it is just beautiful.
0:30:33 > 0:30:35Just growing by the side of the road!
0:30:44 > 0:30:47These mountains rise up to about 3,000 metres,
0:30:47 > 0:30:51which is about twice as high as Ben Nevis.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00I absolutely hadn't expected this.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03A sort of alpine meadow...
0:31:03 > 0:31:05filled with flowers.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10This is a candelabra lily.
0:31:10 > 0:31:14And this whopping great flowerhead.
0:31:14 > 0:31:18And then next to it there's a little aster there, and a white scilla there.
0:31:24 > 0:31:28The Drakensberg range is on the east side of South Africa,
0:31:28 > 0:31:31and has the opposite climate to that of the Cape.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34So here the rains fall during the warm, wet summers which
0:31:34 > 0:31:38gives the plants a growing season similar to that of Northern Europe.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46This purple flower here is, I'm sure, Vernonia.
0:31:46 > 0:31:50Now I planted this at Berryfields just a few months ago
0:31:50 > 0:31:54and here it is, growing in its true home
0:31:54 > 0:31:57in the Drakensberg Mountains.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03This is a funny one, this is Phygelius aequalis, which is becoming increasingly common now.
0:32:03 > 0:32:09You see it in lots of gardens and garden centres. And here's where it really wants to be.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20I'm heading back because it's gone from being beautifully clear and hot
0:32:20 > 0:32:22to really wet and there's rumbles of thunder.
0:32:22 > 0:32:26And apparently the last thing you should do is - there we are -
0:32:26 > 0:32:29hang about if there's any lightning in the mountains, cos it gets you.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32Ooh look. Look at that.
0:32:32 > 0:32:34Come in here and have a look.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37That little white flower is a streptocarpus,
0:32:37 > 0:32:43in flower, growing on an almost vertical damp bank.
0:32:47 > 0:32:50The storms tend to be limited to the afternoons
0:32:50 > 0:32:55and the next morning I get up early to go further up in the mountains.
0:32:56 > 0:33:01Once you get higher up, and I'm now at about 2,500 metres,
0:33:01 > 0:33:05the landscape forms itself
0:33:05 > 0:33:10into the kind of thing that people very carefully construct in rock gardens.
0:33:12 > 0:33:15And here you can see little helichrysums just...
0:33:15 > 0:33:20in little niches and perches in the rocks which are formed beautifully.
0:33:20 > 0:33:26You couldn't do this better with all the money and skill that British horticulture could give you.
0:33:34 > 0:33:37The ground here is dappled
0:33:37 > 0:33:41with these lovely little pink and white flowers.
0:33:41 > 0:33:44It's rhodohypoxis,
0:33:44 > 0:33:47and it's a tiny little thing. I've never grown it.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50But you can grow it in the UK, but normally as a pan in a container.
0:33:50 > 0:33:56And here there are tens of thousands of them, sprinkled over the ground.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03I'm walking through...
0:34:03 > 0:34:06what really amounts to a field of Eucomis.
0:34:06 > 0:34:12You can see them here with the flowers beginning to form and the little pineapple topknot.
0:34:12 > 0:34:15Now these cost a fortune in the UK, but here they are
0:34:15 > 0:34:19nearly 8,000 feet up, on the side of a freezing cold mountain.
0:34:29 > 0:34:33Now look at this little clump of Lobelia.
0:34:33 > 0:34:39Here, 8,000 feet up, growing cheek by jowl with the Eucomis.
0:34:48 > 0:34:53The Drakensberg really is the most extraordinary vast, beautiful sight.
0:34:57 > 0:35:02But on a day like today, it's hard to imagine that in winter
0:35:02 > 0:35:05it quite regularly gets down to about minus two or three here.
0:35:05 > 0:35:08And on the colder parts higher up,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12down to minus 20 or even colder, and snow is really common.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16Which means that essentially it's alpine, and this, of course,
0:35:16 > 0:35:19is the reason why the plants from this area
0:35:19 > 0:35:22adapt so well to our gardens in Northern Europe,
0:35:22 > 0:35:24and that's the connection.
0:35:28 > 0:35:33Seeing plants in their natural environment is the best way to learn about them
0:35:33 > 0:35:38and I'll never look again on a hanging basket filled with Lobelia without thinking of the Drakensberg.
0:35:43 > 0:35:45The Drakensberg is a giant escarpment.
0:35:45 > 0:35:48At its back is an arid plateau,
0:35:48 > 0:35:52the high veldt, which has yet another distinct zone of life.
0:35:53 > 0:35:57This is the setting for an unlikely garden built here nearly 80 years
0:35:57 > 0:36:03ago by the magnificently named Tudor Boddham-Whetham, and his wife, Ruby.
0:36:03 > 0:36:07Named Kirklington, after the Nottingham village where Tudor was born,
0:36:07 > 0:36:10the remote house looks over the distant savannah
0:36:10 > 0:36:13and is more commonly known as "the garden in the veldt".
0:36:19 > 0:36:22The garden is cut into the hillside in a series of terraces
0:36:22 > 0:36:25although only the area around the house remains tended today.
0:36:25 > 0:36:30But there still remain hints and signs of something much grander.
0:36:30 > 0:36:35Thick stone paths and walls are still there amongst the rough growth.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37And beneath the overgrown grass of the orchard
0:36:37 > 0:36:40lies a sleeping giant of a garden.
0:36:46 > 0:36:48These steps lead down...
0:36:50 > 0:36:54..way out of the garden, and these are really solid
0:36:54 > 0:36:57paving stones and steps.
0:36:59 > 0:37:02You see they go on and on and right down!
0:37:03 > 0:37:08And these steps come down to this grand sweeping staircase.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15This was clearly a deliberate attempt to make a grandiose
0:37:15 > 0:37:20English country house garden carved out of the high veldt stone.
0:37:20 > 0:37:27This is garden making on the most ambitious of scales in the most improbable of circumstances.
0:37:27 > 0:37:32Tudor's descendants, the Moffett family, still live on the farm and told me about its creation.
0:37:35 > 0:37:40They had to dress all the stone, cut it on the farm, haul it in
0:37:40 > 0:37:45and then start laying out the paths and the...
0:37:45 > 0:37:47terraces and building the walls.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51This is really ambitious stuff you're describing.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53Very, very ambitious. Yes.
0:37:55 > 0:37:57Climate-wise, it was a battle.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01We are pretty extreme here, being so high.
0:38:01 > 0:38:04January, February when there's a shortage of rain,
0:38:04 > 0:38:05the garden really suffers.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09At times we bring in tankers, cart up water on an on-going basis
0:38:09 > 0:38:13to keep those few things going which are more important.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17- The crops get it first, the farm crops, and then...- Or the cattle.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21The rain comes and then you won't have rain for a long time, again.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23And it streams off the mountain.
0:38:24 > 0:38:29Gathering and storing water is the key to the garden's existence.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33Even before he began the garden, Tudor made extraordinary and extreme
0:38:33 > 0:38:38measures to trap the storm water as it tumbled down the cliffs.
0:38:38 > 0:38:42This path behind the house is essentially a drain, a stone drain
0:38:42 > 0:38:46that comes down, goes underneath this building, out this pipe
0:38:46 > 0:38:48and then along this path
0:38:48 > 0:38:53which meets in the middle the water which pours off the hillside.
0:38:53 > 0:38:56It comes down here...
0:38:56 > 0:38:58and comes to this point.
0:38:58 > 0:39:01Water pouring in down there, through a drain there,
0:39:01 > 0:39:05through this system, into this enormous tank,
0:39:05 > 0:39:09which was designed specifically to water the garden.
0:39:09 > 0:39:13So Tudor's plans were, from the outset, wildly,
0:39:13 > 0:39:18crazily grand, and without this kind of ingenious hydro-engineering,
0:39:18 > 0:39:22a garden like this would never have been possible here.
0:39:22 > 0:39:26I came up here to see the water culverts cut into the rock,
0:39:26 > 0:39:32and get an idea of this great cliff face and the water pouring down to the garden.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35But now I'm up here...
0:39:35 > 0:39:38it's the view that is fantastic, it's awesome.
0:39:38 > 0:39:42And it's all, or a great chunk of it, connected to the house and garden.
0:39:42 > 0:39:45So you have the house and the garden below, and then the fields
0:39:45 > 0:39:49stretching right out for a great chunk of what you can see.
0:39:49 > 0:39:52And for most of us,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56to live in scenery of this scale is unimaginable.
0:40:03 > 0:40:09So now I enter into the final leg of my journey, heading across the high plains to Johannesburg.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11But I'm going to make a little detour first
0:40:11 > 0:40:14to visit another garden.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17This is one that I know very little about,
0:40:17 > 0:40:20but what I've heard whets my appetite.
0:40:20 > 0:40:25It's grown organically in so much that it wasn't really planned. I know that it's just sort of accrued.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28It mainly uses succulents from the region
0:40:28 > 0:40:31and also a lot of rocks and stones.
0:40:33 > 0:40:39Unlike my last visit, this is not a garden that tries to fight the natural environment
0:40:39 > 0:40:42but instead embraces it and in that it is truly of the place,
0:40:42 > 0:40:44a wholly South African garden.
0:40:44 > 0:40:49Everything here, including the house and its furniture, has been designed and made by the owners.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51I asked them what it was called.
0:40:51 > 0:40:55It doesn't really have a name, they said. So let's call it the Magaliesberg Rock Garden.
0:41:03 > 0:41:04What I'm...
0:41:04 > 0:41:06absolutely loving...
0:41:07 > 0:41:09..is the way that...
0:41:09 > 0:41:11stone,
0:41:11 > 0:41:14wood and plant material
0:41:14 > 0:41:20are merging and becoming completely fused as an expression.
0:41:21 > 0:41:23And this is deliberate.
0:41:23 > 0:41:25The garden, made by a painter and a sculptor,
0:41:25 > 0:41:29is being created as a work of land art.
0:41:36 > 0:41:39See, look up there. Look at that.
0:41:41 > 0:41:43That's just beautiful.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47I have to say that when we first came here,
0:41:47 > 0:41:54I knew that it was going to be quite interesting and I'd seen an odd picture or two, but I had no idea...
0:41:54 > 0:41:57that it was all done on this scale.
0:41:58 > 0:42:03The natural slope of the hillside has been gauged and hollowed into one vast sculpture
0:42:03 > 0:42:08so ravines, hillocks and rocky passes leading nowhere
0:42:08 > 0:42:10map out this new made-up land.
0:42:10 > 0:42:16And bowls, ponds and wooden bony carcasses jostle the stone
0:42:16 > 0:42:19until they marry into a kind of composite, organic material.
0:42:19 > 0:42:21It's breathtaking.
0:42:31 > 0:42:36Fantastic. The health and safety people would be having a fit now.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39And if I fall off, well at least I've had fun.
0:42:43 > 0:42:46I've often thought and I suspect often said that,
0:42:46 > 0:42:50half of gardening is just grown ups going outside to play.
0:42:50 > 0:42:55And what I feel here, is that this is just untrammelled play.
0:42:55 > 0:43:01Someone who's raised playing outside in the garden to an art form.
0:43:20 > 0:43:24Even though the stonework and the sculpture seems to dominate.
0:43:24 > 0:43:28And I think if it was just stonework and wood,
0:43:28 > 0:43:32it would be beautiful and interesting, but it wouldn't quite be enough.
0:43:32 > 0:43:36What really makes it come alive and what peoples it, are the plants.
0:43:46 > 0:43:53There are a wide range of drought tolerant plants, grasses, agaves, and many other indigenous South
0:43:53 > 0:44:00African succulents, many of which have been rescued from development and bought here to be nurtured.
0:44:01 > 0:44:05But it is the giant aloes that dominate.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08Some of the bigger ones are just bursting with personality.
0:44:08 > 0:44:11You feel like you ought to go up and introduce yourself.
0:44:14 > 0:44:18All of these plants are perfectly adapted to the arid conditions here,
0:44:18 > 0:44:21as is the inevitable wildlife they attract.
0:44:21 > 0:44:24There's even a weaver bird colony just outside the front door.
0:44:30 > 0:44:34The garden, down to the last stone, is the creation of the sculptor
0:44:34 > 0:44:38Geoffrey Armstrong and painter Wendy Vincent.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41It's a happy hour garden, that's how it started.
0:44:41 > 0:44:46After you had spent the day painting or carving, you'd then come and sit
0:44:46 > 0:44:50and all of a sudden said, "Right, let's have a stream.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53- "Let's have a pond." - We all do it.- And...- Exactly!
0:44:53 > 0:44:58- You have a cup of tea in the morning and you say, "Let's have a stream!"- Yes.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03We're already laying another pond, even though the water's drying up.
0:45:03 > 0:45:04I like your style.
0:45:04 > 0:45:10And that became obsessive and then started to...
0:45:10 > 0:45:16about six years ago, one started to think of it as a work of art.
0:45:16 > 0:45:20Yes. It's quite common to see works of art in a garden,
0:45:20 > 0:45:21it's quite common for artists
0:45:21 > 0:45:25to have a keen interest in gardens as an expression of their art.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29It's not very common to see gardens as a work of art.
0:45:29 > 0:45:32- Was it intended as that?- It changed.
0:45:32 > 0:45:36We were just enthusiasts, you know, bringing plants and rocks in.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40And then we started looking at the whole, and that was then
0:45:40 > 0:45:44when we saw that it was getting more important than just that.
0:45:44 > 0:45:47It was actually important to bring in the environment
0:45:47 > 0:45:52and to see through, and to look at different aspects from different angles, and to see that you needed
0:45:52 > 0:45:57to repeat something somewhere else and where you would cluster things.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59Just like painting a canvas, actually.
0:46:04 > 0:46:07Now British horticulture can be occasionally a bit
0:46:07 > 0:46:10pompous and self-referential, but a garden like this,
0:46:10 > 0:46:15entirely in tune with its setting, that celebrates the relationship between plants and art
0:46:15 > 0:46:19and yet maybe the sort of earth-mania that every gardener recognises,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22rekindles every kind of enthusiasm.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26So I continue on to Johannesburg bouyed up with inspiration.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30I'm on my way to a garden now called Brenthurst,
0:46:30 > 0:46:35which is reckoned to be the biggest, and the grandest and the best-known garden in the whole of South Africa.
0:46:35 > 0:46:40It's run by a woman called Strilli Opppenheimer, who, since she took
0:46:40 > 0:46:44it over about seven years ago, has turned it completely organic.
0:46:44 > 0:46:48So on two counts, this is likely to be a really interesting garden for me.
0:46:50 > 0:46:54Brenthurst is certainly grand, For a start, it is huge -
0:46:54 > 0:46:5845 acres of intensive gardens right in the middle of Johannesberg.
0:47:06 > 0:47:09It has belonged to the Oppenheimer family since the early 1920s, whose
0:47:09 > 0:47:13fortune was derived from the local diamond and gold mining industries.
0:47:13 > 0:47:20The garden has many different sections including sweeping lawns, statuary, a large Japanese garden,
0:47:20 > 0:47:25mature woodlands, a biodynamic vegetable garden and areas that seem to be left to grow wild.
0:47:31 > 0:47:36Over the past seven years, the garden has been going through a kind of horticultural revolution,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39which has shocked some but thrilled as many others.
0:47:39 > 0:47:42And this is entirely due to the naturalistic principles
0:47:42 > 0:47:45of its current mistress, Strilli Oppenheimer.
0:47:45 > 0:47:49I could quite easily and find it exciting,
0:47:49 > 0:47:53to do nothing at all with the garden and just watch it...
0:47:54 > 0:47:58..become totally wild again,
0:47:58 > 0:48:02and meet its climax and create another rhythm.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07The garden was originally laid out in 1904, but much of the existing
0:48:07 > 0:48:11structure was added in 1959 by the garden designer Joan Pimm.
0:48:11 > 0:48:14However it remained as a conventional, highly controlled,
0:48:14 > 0:48:17Edwardian garden until Strilli took over in 2001.
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Now the lawns consist of local species of grass,
0:48:21 > 0:48:24whole swathes of which are encouraged to run to seed
0:48:24 > 0:48:29and borders are encouraged to grow naturally without obvious attempts to tidy or control.
0:48:31 > 0:48:36However, the vistas and views are carefully maintained.
0:48:38 > 0:48:40I think that the scale is superb.
0:48:43 > 0:48:50On the hillside above the statues is a huge Japanese garden commisioned by Strilli and her husband, Nicky.
0:48:59 > 0:49:04This was done by one of the gardeners of the Emperor,
0:49:04 > 0:49:07and so for me...
0:49:07 > 0:49:10I know something about Japanese gardens but not a lot,
0:49:10 > 0:49:14and what I needed was that if we had something which was called
0:49:14 > 0:49:18a Japanese garden that it was truly authentic to the Japanese.
0:49:18 > 0:49:23And for me what it does is create a tension between the sort of gardening
0:49:23 > 0:49:28where I am comfortable which is very natural and, don't prune anything,
0:49:28 > 0:49:31and this totally clipped garden.
0:49:35 > 0:49:39Certainly the almost obsessive control of Japanese horticulture
0:49:39 > 0:49:43in this garden creates a dynamic of balancing tensions, and ideologies.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45It gives the place energy.
0:49:45 > 0:49:47Round the corner, we go up to the Kopje garden.
0:49:47 > 0:49:53Now Kopje is an African rocky outcrop, and here the plants are again given a free rein.
0:49:53 > 0:49:56For a lot of people who want to garden naturally, are becoming
0:49:56 > 0:50:00environmentally much more aware, who want to be in tune with what they
0:50:00 > 0:50:05conceive as a correct way to behave towards the natural world,
0:50:05 > 0:50:07have only their garden in which to operate.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10But I think they must be conscious about what they want
0:50:10 > 0:50:14and what they're trying to do, and have that relationship.
0:50:14 > 0:50:18When they have a real relationship with the plants, then they're...
0:50:18 > 0:50:22I mean it's like with their children, they let their children grow.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26They don't totally prune and, or maybe some people do,
0:50:26 > 0:50:30you know, control their children and then they're a disaster.
0:50:31 > 0:50:37Brenthurst is a carefully managed balance between natural freedom and human control.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41Clipped hedges contain untrammelled growth, and everything is connected
0:50:41 > 0:50:45and interwoven by paths, many of which are decorated
0:50:45 > 0:50:48with assay cores from the mines.
0:50:53 > 0:50:57Strilli takes me to the terrace just below the house to show me the broad
0:50:57 > 0:51:01view, but in particular the large borders on the lawn below.
0:51:03 > 0:51:07These were planned and planted and then left to grow pretty much
0:51:07 > 0:51:11as they pleased, creating a constantly evolving display.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18This is typical
0:51:18 > 0:51:24of allowing really nature to do what it wants to do
0:51:24 > 0:51:29and not imposing one's own view on it and it's just as beautiful,
0:51:29 > 0:51:32if not more beautiful, than it was as a mixed border.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41We in the UK make these borders,
0:51:41 > 0:51:44we plant them carefully, we plan and design them.
0:51:44 > 0:51:50We tweak and prune and preen them and try and establish a picture,
0:51:50 > 0:51:55like a work of art, and somehow take the applause for it ourselves.
0:51:55 > 0:52:01Whereas what Strilli said about these mixed borders made a huge impression on me.
0:52:01 > 0:52:04Let the plants do their own thing.
0:52:04 > 0:52:07Let them free, they'll do it fine without you.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Now that's so inspirational,
0:52:10 > 0:52:15and immediately I thought, "I like that a lot and I want to do it."
0:52:15 > 0:52:19I want to get out in my own garden and do precisely that.
0:52:23 > 0:52:29The effect of Brenthurst, just like the rock garden at Magaliesberg, is to shake up my idea of how
0:52:29 > 0:52:35to garden, and redefine my image of what a garden can be and not to be overawed by that, but empowered.
0:52:40 > 0:52:43Before I leave South Africa, I have one last garden to visit,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46that takes me from one of the wealthiest white households
0:52:46 > 0:52:50to a school in the township of Tembisa on the outskirts of Johannesberg.
0:52:54 > 0:53:00Under apartheid, millions of black Africans were removed from their homes and re-housed in what were
0:53:00 > 0:53:07often makeshift settlements called townships, which were often the focus of violent civil unrest.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Today, a million people live here in pretty harsh conditions
0:53:11 > 0:53:13and life is still tough.
0:53:13 > 0:53:18But when I arrive at Thuthuka Primary School, I am welcomed in song.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37I don't know what's going on, not at all.
0:53:37 > 0:53:41I'm just drifting along in a river of singing children.
0:53:41 > 0:53:45I don't know what they're singing about, I haven't a clue what's happening but it's lovely.
0:53:53 > 0:53:59The school's garden is organic, biodynamic and grows mostly herbs and vegetables
0:53:59 > 0:54:03and my irrepressible guide is a teacher, Mr Lucas Mbembele.
0:54:03 > 0:54:08Come now and enter in the main gate to our garden, from our classroom.
0:54:08 > 0:54:14So now here this is our zenith, they are working here,
0:54:14 > 0:54:18they're taking off all the dry
0:54:18 > 0:54:23and the yellow leaves to put on our compost.
0:54:23 > 0:54:25- This is beautiful.- Thank you.
0:54:25 > 0:54:28- It's a wonderful garden.- Thank you.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30Your beds are mixed.
0:54:30 > 0:54:35With different types of herbs, different types of vegetables.
0:54:35 > 0:54:39The reason is not to be able to repel the insects,
0:54:39 > 0:54:45and for them to be able to give each plant,
0:54:45 > 0:54:50- it gives food to the other one. - As well as an important supply of vegetables,
0:54:50 > 0:54:54there are many traditional medicinal plants being grown here too.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59Here at school, you can see there's no child who's coughing here.
0:54:59 > 0:55:04- This is the main medicine, we called "lingana."- Lingana.
0:55:04 > 0:55:09Boil the water, and put there and make a tea and let the child drink.
0:55:09 > 0:55:15In no time that child is cured from flu or from cold.
0:55:18 > 0:55:25But there are some plants here which are ntended to help with a much more serious issue, HIV Aids.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30South Africa has one of the highest incidences of Aids, affecting over
0:55:30 > 0:55:3720% of the adult population and up to a third of these children here.
0:55:37 > 0:55:39I've got African potato here.
0:55:39 > 0:55:46We don't cure HIV Aids, but we suspend that spreading
0:55:46 > 0:55:49of that opportunist diseases through the HIV Aids.
0:55:49 > 0:55:55We take the bulbs, we chop them, we cook them, we let it drain.
0:55:55 > 0:56:02We're reducing the speed, how it can be able to kill you.
0:56:06 > 0:56:09A section of the garden is used as an outdoor classroom
0:56:09 > 0:56:15where the children are taught all kinds of subjects, from maths to horticulture.
0:56:17 > 0:56:19Tell me, do you like working in the garden?
0:56:19 > 0:56:22- Yes.- What do you like about it?
0:56:22 > 0:56:25Watering plants, planting.
0:56:25 > 0:56:26I like sweeping.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28Why do you like that?
0:56:28 > 0:56:32- Because it cleans our garden. - What sort of things do you learn?
0:56:32 > 0:56:37How to plant trees, how to take care of your environment.
0:56:37 > 0:56:40- Do you think the garden is beautiful?- Yes.- Why?
0:56:40 > 0:56:47We've got flowers, spinach, onions, cabbage...
0:56:47 > 0:56:50So that makes our garden look beautiful.
0:56:51 > 0:56:53It certainly does.
0:56:56 > 0:57:02If it belonged to a keen amateur gardener at home, I would admire it hugely.
0:57:02 > 0:57:07As it is, this is a school garden in a township in South Africa.
0:57:07 > 0:57:09So it's beautiful in its own right
0:57:09 > 0:57:13and it's a miracle, it's just wonderful.
0:57:18 > 0:57:24It's been a fascinating journey. There's no doubt that the gardens I've seen reflect the way
0:57:24 > 0:57:27that the nation is in a process of transition,
0:57:27 > 0:57:32evolving from a severe colonial past to a true South African identity.
0:57:35 > 0:57:40That identity is shaped as much as anything else by the landscape, which is just staggering.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45And then there are the plants in that landscape.
0:57:45 > 0:57:51To see so many familiar garden plants growing in their natural form and habitat was a treat.
0:57:59 > 0:58:04Before I came here I had a fixed image of South Africa,
0:58:04 > 0:58:07forged by the horrors of apartheid,
0:58:07 > 0:58:11that had, I admit, become a pretty blinkered outlook.
0:58:11 > 0:58:14In fact I'd go so far as to say that if I was really honest,
0:58:14 > 0:58:17before I came here I didn't want to come at all.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21And now that I've been here I am just so glad that I did come.
0:58:26 > 0:58:29Next time my journey will keep me closer to home
0:58:29 > 0:58:32as I go in search of some of the most inspiring gardens
0:58:32 > 0:58:36to be found in the more familiar territory of Northern Europe.
0:59:00 > 0:59:02Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:02 > 0:59:04E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk