But this time we were lucky. Marcel Veens, one of the Australian gurus in horticultural advise was visiting South Africa (visiting fruit farmers in Ceres and Elgin) and known with Soekershof he was voluntarily willing to train our staff in basic pruning techniques. That took a whole morning and the staff learned pruning techniques until yet unknown in South Africa.

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.

Just a selection of products as displayed in the Visitors Center. Prices vary from around R 30.00 for beaded (real glass beads) keyring and R 20.00 for a plant hanger to R 3500.00 for a set garden furniture and R 45,000.00 for a set of King- and Queen Chairs; the latter ones are in the finishing stages and are made of laminated Eucalyptus wood (2 species). One of the pictures shows a King Chair without woodcarved elements and unpolished.

The author is from Austin, Texas and our first contact dates back a few years. Two of the thirtytwo pages are dedicated to the Klaas Voogds Maze of Soekershof in Robertson, Western Cape, South Africa where at the moment strange things are happening such as the creation of extraordinary objects as wire trees and a ‘cruise missile’.

Mary D. Lankford is also engaged in a future publication about umbrellas. And guess what: The Soekershof Umbrellas will be in it.

No ‘copycat stuff’ but original design as is everything we try to initiate.

The marketing of Soekershof is merely Internet related and this in a country of which the majority of Internet users don’t know how to use the medium and, due to cultural/educational/etc. background, are no concentrated readers. But there is a way to attract them: ‘Tag’ a celebrity in a blog and get the hits (1200+ in 20 hrs for 007). As said Soekershof’s marketing is primary Internet related; combined with word of mouth and media exposure. It brings us more than 80 percent of the visitors (around 20 percent solely on account of Internet). And 70 percent of the visitors is South African.

But there is more.
More important is the continuous movement at Soekershof. The new rockeries near the entrance are getting shape. The succulent plant collection is increasing; from over 2400 different and registered plants to around 2700 OUTDOORS in the garden towards the end of this month. It’s by far the largest outdoor collection of its kind in South Africa. Together with passionate friends of Obesa Nursery in Graaff Reinet Soekershof acquired a few hundred very rare species from private collectors. And nearby in McGregor is the outstanding lithop collection of Andrew van Ginkel (approx. 2000 species under cover). With these and other colleagues Soekershof maintains a good mututal beneficial exchange of knowledge.
And on Soekershof’s blogsite http://soekershofwalkabout.blogspot.com you find in the right collumn links to other things to do in Robertson plus a link to accommodation in the region of which you can be assured of a consistent good quality and hospitality, each in their own market segment. It is the philosophy of Soekershof that it is also in their interest that visitors enjoy every moment of their stay in the Robertson Wine Valley.

Art in the Garden

Next to the baobab sculpture one of these months we Soekershof will launch the first South African ‘cruise missile’. This 4.5 metres high sculpture is at the moment getting shape in the workshop and is created by woodworker Marthinus Plaatjies who also makes an exclusieve collection of (laminated) wooden products such as garden furniture, seed boxes (with embedded cotyledon) and design handbags. Also in the making are the laminated (2 bluegum species) King and Queen Chairs of respectivily 200 and 165 cm high and each weighing over 100 kilograms. These monumental objects (one of a kind) will be for sale in the Visitors Centre. And Joey the wire artist is still demonstrating visitors a real African handshake ... next to his unique work of course.

Inviting gifted artists from local communities nearby is part of Soekershof’s engagement in Fair Trade in Tourism in South Africa.

In the near future Soekershof hopes to attract more local artists who are, as Joey, willing to invest time in creating unique collections of their own work with the foresight of making an independent, non-subsidised, sustainable income.

Mama Africa

If time allows owners and staff of soekershof will also add new, visualised, stories in the Klaas Voogds Maze. But first they want to sculpture a giant Earthwork (>2 metres high, 14 metres long and 6 metres wide) representing Mama Africa. This object is dedicated to all people of this fascinating African continent (and also a little bit to a few locals who every now and than are circling with their aircraft above Soekershof ..........).

More info: http://soekershof.com
Blog: http://soekershofwalkabout.blogspot.com

Fair Trade in Tourism in South Africa: http://www.fairtourismsa.org.za

Obesa Nursery: http://www.obesanursery.com
Andrew van Ginkel: http://www.lithops.co.za

Inviting gifted artists from local communities nearby is part of Soekershof’s engagement in Fair Trade in Tourism in South Africa.

In the near future Soekershof (=Seekers Garden) hopes to attract more local artists who are, as Joey, willing to invest time in creating unique collections of their own work with the foresight of making an independent, non-subsidised, sustainable income.