Moonlight roses

More than a century after this Victorian house was built, well-planned garden rooms enhance its beauty and style.

- Marié Brody

 

Hanelie Pretorius has created a garden that perfectly complements the architecture of her historic home, with carefully planned garden rooms and beds brimming with white and pink roses, reminiscent of an English garden.

When Hanelie and Johan moved in here 32 years ago, the beautiful house was covered with creepers and the garden was overgrown. “It also didn’t have a fence or driveway. We enlisted an architect to make sure that any changes we made would suit the aesthetic of the house,” she says.

“The house, which was built in 1898 by a Dutch man by the name of Bonebakker, was one of the first homes in Potchefstroom. Scottish stonemasons were called in and the broekie lace on the stoeps was imported from England.”

The couple wanted to ensure that the garden they created would suit the house. I was a bit ignorant so made so many mistakes. We started off by removing all the plants that had overgrown the house and garden. Some of the shrubs were replanted and the beautiful huge trees that provide shade were retained.

“Fifteen years ago, asked Gerhard Greeff, a horticulturist at LGT Horticulture and Industrial Services in Potchefstroom, to assist me with the front garden. After briefing him what wanted, we started with the rose arches over the pathway to the garden gate. The rest evolved from there.”

With the help of Sonita Young of Young Landscape Design Studio in Johannesburg, Hanelie created a number of garden rooms, namely a rose garden, vegetable garden and pool garden.