NATURAL CONNECTION

With the lightest touch, landscape designer Carrie Latimer coaxes botanical magic from a sandy coastal garden that is as pretty as it is a flourishing dune ecosystem

- HEIDI BERTISH

'The more gardens I design, the less I want to leave my stamp on them,' says landscape designer Carrie Latimer, encapsulating her ecological and light-footed approach to creating outdoor spaces that are sustainable, beautiful and eco-conscious. Her recent coastal garden project is no exception, positioned high above the coastal village of Hout Bay on what is essentially dunescape on the southern slopes of Klein Leeukoppie.

"The homeowners have a deep-seated love of nature,' she says, and coveted a garden that brought the natural rhythms of its surroundings and local vegetation right up to the architecture.' As part of the environmentally savvy, multidisciplinary team, architect Simon McCullough used texture and natural materials as the visual conduit linking building and landscape.

"Structure and cladding were chosen for their gentle footprint and to pioneer greener building systems,' he says. "The shape of the building subtly echoes the iconic Hout Bay Sentinel prominent against the mountain landscape behind the house, further grounding it in its broader context.

Fundamental to the garden is the concept of a closed-loop design - a circular system that feeds back into itself. 'Instead of relying on municipal water and allowing rainwater to run off into the storm water, we close that loop,' says Carrie, by directing all roof water into a holding reservoir on the property.' Enough rainwater is harvested over winter to keep the natural pool topped up through summer, and surplus water is used for the garden.