The art of landscaping a (succulent) garden is not only to create focal points but especially ‘landmarks’ that change with the seasons or even with months or weeks. The succulent gardens of Soekershof; Private Mazes & Botanical Gardens is a good example of this.

Landmarks don’t have to big; it can be a small plant in flower, sometimes only for a few weeks. The art of landscaping is such that you can arrange the different plants in such a manor that every corner in the garden has its ever changing year-round focal points.

It’s not easy to design a garden; you need knowledge of plants, imagination and vision. A good landscaped garden is not an instant garden. A garden has to grow into eternity and in general it takes a few years to arrange and re-arrange the different focal points; not to mention the ‘filling up’.

Always start to make an outline of the garden. Think practical; make pathways from which you can reach every plant without stepping in the garden (f.e. spots where bulbs are planted). Than plant the ‘infrastructure’ (large plants). Begin with a few and try to visualise the future growth. In an ordninary garden this infrastructure consists of the trees (and in some cases also the borderline hedges); in a succulent garden these are the large collumnar plants (f.e. stem aloes, collumnar cacti, etc.). Once these are establishing think of the ‘undergrowth’ (barrelshaped cacti, shrubs, etc.). Slowly creating your garden is very fullfilling. The main beginners mistake is that too many plants are planted resulting in a ‘make-over’ after a few years. Many landscapers work that way; it’s not entirely their fault because their customers sometimes insist on an instant garden not always realising the amount of extra work this will bring after a few years. Another misperception is that ‘waterwise gardening’ (with succulent plants) is also ‘no-maintenance gardening’. You will also have to know if your local environment is in line with every individual plant specie or cultivar. Sometimes you can simulate the right environment; for example to situate a rain sensitive plant under a hanging rock or plant shade loving plants in the shade of others.

Landscaping is not that easy at all. The best landscaped gardens are those that grow under your fingers.