History & Development

We purchased this property 2 years ago.  At the time, it was a fairly wild garden, but with little space for children to play.  We decided to do some renovations to add a grass area, while at the same time maintaining an area for birds to feel safe in our garden.  To do so meant that we needed to lift out all of the plants, build a retaining wall and then re-establish an exclusion zone area of the garden below the retaining wall.  These renovations were done during the course of 2022, and the garden is still re-establishing itself properly.

The garden was too small to accommodate a giant Natal Giant Cycad which at the time took up most of the garden.  Luckily, through a contact provided by the Natal Cycad Society, we were able to find someone who translocated the cycad to a new home.  This required a crane to lift the cycad over the established Harpephyllum caffrum (Wild Plum) on the verge of the property.  Once the retaining wall was constructed, we replanted the indigenous plants that we had saved during the clearing, as well as added other plants such as Halleria lucida, Dovyalis caffra (Kei apple), and Polygala myrtifolia (Myrtle-leaf milkwort).

At present we have a bird list of 73 species spotted from our postage-stamp-sized garden, and we hope that as the exclusion zone establishes itself, there will be more birds seen passing through it. There is still work to do and some plants, such as the Cycas, still need to be replaced onc others have established themselves. 

click on the photos in the album below to scroll through larger view images. Photos Mark Williams-Wynn