Thousands of people throughout South Africa celebrated their green spaces with neighbours, family and friends for the seventh annual Garden Day (9 October) by popping on a flower crown and toasting the goodness their gardens give them all year long.
One of the events marking this day is the annual Babylonstoren Perdeskoen Garden Day Competition.
Jan and Gerda Kanfer took first prize in this year’s competition for their beautiful pecan tree-centred garden. It has become a focal point of their lives, and they claim to spend more time in it than they do inside their home.
Many hours were spent caring for and feeding their beautiful green lawn to create an open space in which children can run around, play and feel safe.
An inviting, vibrant pathway lined with colourful blooms leads guests to their front door, but for Jan and Gerda, the best part of all is their braai area, where they can sit and relax with a glass of wine. Cypress trees, stones, benched sitting areas, grape vines and definitely the pecan nuts, make this winning garden a place to enjoy.
The Babylonstoren’s farm worker’s cottages are built in the shape of a horseshoe around the perimeter of the estate’s green fields, which gave rise to the name of this annual competition started in 2013. Open to all the resident employees, it encourages participation and is an easily achievable goal for all who take part. Entrants are adjudicated according to five simple categories: neatness, colour, design use for food or medicine, and trees.
