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Babylonstoren intend “ Tower of Babel ” in Dutch , and the eight land of gardens at this doctor 18th - one C Cape Dutch farmstead and hotel in South Africa ’s Drakenstein Valley are , like their namesake , both massive and invitingly unfinished . And yet , a walkway through the grounds may help visitors do what that skyscraper of legend could not : touch heaven .
A map of the garden . picture by : Babylonstoren .
“ Perhaps the great unwashed find it peaceful because it ’s not aggressive , ” says Babylonstoren ’s landscape painting designer , Gallic designer Patrice Taravella . “ Beauty is not an objective , it is the result . ”
In the geometric gardens of Babylonstoren , a farmstead and hotel near Cape Town , South Africa , nerve tract pave with recycled peach pits crunch underfoot beside a gurgling , stone - lined stream that serves as the gardens ’ gravity - aided irrigation organization . exposure by : Cactus Branding ( courtesy of Babylonstoren ) .
In 2007 , owner Karen Roos reached out to Taravella — who impress her with his piece of work at Prieuré d’Orsan , his reimagined cloister garden on the grounds of a reestablish 12th - hundred monastery in France ’s Berry province — and tasked him with creating a totally edible and medicinal garden . Roos , a former editor for Elle Decoration South Africa , dreamt of reinterpreting the storied Company ’s Garden of the Dutch East India Co. The spice route traders founded nearby Cape Town in 1652 , and the farm surrounding the dependency cater sailing traders with fresh fruits and vegetables .
Taravella get down by devote the garden not bad bones . A straight line from the convertedkraal , where livestock were once keep , to the Babylonstoren kopje , or hill , serve as the axis of the grounds . Based on that grit , the garden beams out in a perfect power grid with neat , copious row of fruit trees , veg patch , and herb hedges . “ For me , it ’s not the plant that make the garden , ” say Taravella . “ In China and Japan , they do n’t employ plants at all . They use water system and stone . The most important affair is the social structure . ”
The Western Cape ’s vibrant aboriginal species thrive in the garden . picture by : Dookphoto.com ( courtesy of Babylonstoren ) .
Like a Wonderland chessboard , each tidy square is brimming with curiosities . Pergolas shroud in climbing roses or grapevines tower above disciplined rows of twisted guava tree . More than 50 varieties of treillage - train gemstone fruit are planted sequentially by order of unfolding — they blossom in a wave from one quarrel to the next . In one square , three varieties of prickly pear cacti form a maze of jade ; in a neighboring block , visitors can walk barefoot through speculation patch of calm Chamaemelum nobilis . Worker duck , keep to patrol the vineyards for pests , flap and babble spiritedly from their pen .
Students of local flora can explore 10 hectares of endangered indigenous coinage , including examples of Western Cape ’s divers fynbos floral kingdom . For three weeks in bound , visitors revel thousands of auburn and butter - color clivia that blanket the savings bank of Babylonstoren ’s stream like “ a river of blooms , ” say Taravella .
Cape farm once offered their amplitude to sailor traveling to and from the Far East . Photo by : Babylonstoren .
The property will evolve with the emergence of novel plantings , such as milkwood tree that may inhabit for 1,000 years and fast - originate carob powder tree near the invitee bungalow . But for Taravella , there is no reason to take care toward the future . “ A garden is like a man , ” he says . “ A human beings or woman is always interesting , whether at two month , two years , 20 years , or 50 years . And like a human , there is not a meter when the garden becomes finished . ”
Ganda Suthivarakom is the web site conductor of Saveur.com .
