Caxton magazines staffInspired by well-known movies, students of Lifestyle College in Randburg came up with ideas to make the courtyard garden more inviting and enjoyable
In step with the trend for healthy outdoor living, harmony and peace were created using fragrant plants, water features, birdbaths, ornamental grasses and colourful edibles. This included filling spaces with mulches, bricks, paving and pebbles. With planning, you can have the best of both worlds: an additional kitchen and dining space and an eye-catching garden.
Dining in the Orchards, inspired by The Hundred Foot Journey, was designed by Tania Jacobsz and Jenny Walsh. It has a central seating area under a gazebo laden with hanging planters overflowing with greenery.
In keeping with its orchard theme, barrels were filled with herbs and surrounded by coriander, ornamental chilli, fennel, pennyroyal and fragrant alyssum.
Eat Me! (sponsored by SA Garden and Home) designed by Mike Rickhoff, Colin White, Matthew Nagel and Eduan Muller, is a dense vibrant mass of bright and cheerful plantings of mainly edible herbs and vegetables (this garden will be featured in our April issue). It was inspired by Gone With the Wind.
Trellising was used for screening, dividing, as structures for visual interest, to break up spaces and for growing creepers and climbing vegetables. Plants like self-seeding echinacea add clusters of colour and visual appeal all over this garden.
Cascades captures the exotic appeal of patterned carpets with a number of elements. Lesego Seloane, Riaan Janse van Rensburg and Kerry Stead used geometric shapes in their garden like this circular water feature and mosaic balls. Providing ‘carpeting’ between the roughly laid paving is Mazus reptans and mulch; both ideas are easy to do at home.
Outdoor solar lighting means you can spend more evenings relaxing and dining outdoors. Surrounding this pretty light is Viola odorata, V. hederacea, Justicia brandegeana and New Guinea impatiens.
Love Story, with its muted green and white colour scheme and restful classic design, demonstrates the art of living beautifully and makes the perfect outlook. For the white plants, designers Shanti Dominic and Tristan Price used white ‘Iceberg’ roses, Mandevilla boliviensis, magnolia and hydrangea and added touches of pink with Pentas lanceolata and begonias.
The bees just couldn’t resist the Euphorbia ‘Kilimanjaro’ surrounded by carex in the La Dolce Vita garden (also sponsored by SA Garden and Home), designed by Francois Sharrock and Merle Ryan.
Gardening is all about enjoying your outdoor area in both summer and winter, so sharpen your style and design eye and visit these gardens for ideas on how to give your courtyard loads of personality.
The Lifestyle Garden Show is on until the end of May at Lifestyle Home Garden, cnr Beyers Naudé and Ysterhout Avenue, Randpark Ridge, Randburg. Entrance is free. For more information, call 011 792 5616 or visit lifestyle.co.za
