The Garden Club went on its first outing of 2023 to Babylonstoren – a wonderful working farm and 3.5-hectare garden. The grounds were inspired by Cape Town’s 17th Century Company Gardens.
In 2007, the present Owner, Karen Roos, asked Patrice Tavella to redesign the Estate. The soil was improved and replanting was done. The first paying visitor came through the doors, in November 2010.
The garden divides into 15 sections that include vegetable patches, a variety of orchards, nut trees, and indigenous plants, plus poultry, bee hives, and a prickly pear maze to wander through.
Also present are a variety of trees with historical or botanical significance. The ponds are planted with lotus, nymphaea lilies, and waterblommetjies. There’s a Healing Garden, plus a splendid succulent collection and Spice Garden. Some 7000 Clivia lilies bloom spectacularly every spring and in early summer the chamomile lawn becomes an aromatic carpet, while 41 rose towers are covered with fragrant heritage varieties. The garden is the only Royal Horticultural Society Partner in Africa.
We were lucky enough to have Kobus as our Guide through the Gardens. He was extremely knowledgeable and was able to impart that knowledge with humour and without condescension for those whose horticultural savvy was less than his.
The farm was named after the infamous Tower of babel, for two reasons. Firstly, there is a small hill overlooking the farm, which has a spiral pathway, leading to the summit (only open to Hotel Guests). Secondly, when the farm was opened, there were so many people of different nationalities, all speaking different languages, it was like the babble of Babel.
We know that flowers need insects to pollinate the plants. To encourage insects the farm has put up Insect Hotels. Kobus did not encourage us to get too close to them, as stinging wasps were abroad at the time of our visit, and none of us were brave enough to go too close. Thank goodness for zoom on our camera phones!!
Do you remember those ghastly Vuvuzelas at the 2010 FIFA World Cup? Kobus explained that as a young boy his father was too poor to buy them things, but he did grow pumpkins. The boys would take a leaf from these vegetables, cut the end off, and voila!! A Pumpkinzela was created.
We were encouraged to pick anything we came across, that was edible. That would have been wonderful, as we passed through orchards of peaches, nectarines, and plums. However, they had had thousands of visitors over the Holiday period and the trees were denuded of most of their fruit!!!! Nevertheless, Jill managed to scrounge a couple of lemons to go into our G & Ts, that evening, and we picked up some carob beans to make tea with, plus three figs that the ravishing hoards had managed to miss. To compensate, outside the shop were some beautiful red plums, which managed to slip into the bags, and the mouths, of some of the Somerset gardeners.
They are all organic here, so this small field of brinjals was protected from harmful insects by the marigolds planted between them. In the background, you can see a Gourd pergola, and several varieties of the gourd are grown within them. One variety grows as long as a human: in the case of the Author, longer than this human. Those that Kobus is handling will touch the ground by the time they are finished growing.
Of course, there has to be a shop: in the case of Babylonstoren, several shops. Besides the general shop where you could get duck eggs, bread, and general groceries, there is a cheesery, a slaghuis (I love that word), and an upmarket gift shop (R130 for a rayon tea cloth and R3,500 for a designer teapot) We managed to leave a few rands at these shops, but we all passed on the teapot.
When we arrived the producers of a lot of the manure originally used to fertilise the grounds, came to greet us. As the visit was so soon after Christmas, these three are very lucky to still be walking around!!
After that long tour, and all that walking, we decided to stop at the Glasshouse Restaurant, one of two at Babylonstoren, for a quick snack. Whilst it was quite quick, snack it certainly was not! I am sure that none of us left the place hungry!! Iced alcoholic beverages and Ice Cream reduced the heat of the day, for some of us.
Thanks, as always to Lourens, who acted as a chauffeur, for our trip. There are other trips to be organised for 2023. Perhaps you would like to join us?
At The Somerset Lifestyle and Retirement Village in Somerset West, we offer a variety of events that are arranged by the Entertainment Committee and include things like Film Club Movies, Canasta, Croquet, and Arts & Crafts. To be part of this vibrant community, why not speak to one of our sales consultants? Click over here to contact us.
