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Design Ideas From An Artistic South African Rockery in Magaliesberg

August 17, 2024

You know, not all gardens start with a love of plants. Sure, plants are important, perhaps even a requirement (some would argue) for a ‘garden’ to be a garden. But, as this amazing South African plot shows, they don’t have to be the raison d’etre for creating an amazing outdoor place. This a place where creativity and an abundance of resources (namely rocks) collide to make something extraordinary.

The beginnings of this garden were simple: Geoffrey Armstrong and Wendy Vincent (both artists) started collecting things they loved – specifically rocks.

A tranquil forest scene features a South African-inspired rockery with creatively stacked formations of various sizes. Lush green trees and foliage surround a small pond, while branches and fallen logs add texture to the serene natural environment.
A natural garden scene features a large rockery with stacked rock formations in the foreground and lush greenery throughout. Various succulents and cacti are scattered around, complemented by tall South African agave plants. A stone pathway meanders through the garden.

Monolithic Cairns around the lily pond

As I covet these brilliant stacked structures, I can’t help but wonder how on earth they were created by Geoffrey and Wendy. Like all good art, the question of ‘how did they do it?’ lingers at the back of your mind.

A South African Rock Garden

Cactus and stone sculptures surround a concrete lily pond.

A serene garden scene with a South African rockery pond surrounded by lush greenery and tall trees. Large rocks and plant life create a natural, tranquil setting. A small animal skull rests on a rock in the foreground, adding an element of curiosity to the peaceful landscape.

The collections grew, and new collections were created -including plants – which friends passed along.

A Rock Garden is Born of Necessity

The story of their garden reminds me of here, where I live in New England. We have remnants of stone walls everywhere.

Our stone walls are protected when they follow property lines, but you will find them crisscrossing properties and even in the woods, where you have to wonder why someone would have created them there.

You have to remember – farmers don’t want rocks in their fields, and New England’s hills were covered in early settlers’ farms. Farming gave us the stone walls of New England just like it also produced this beautiful garden in Magaliesberg, South Africa.

As a sculptor, Geoffry loved the rocks and happily accepted them from neighbors. Bit by bit, slowly, over 10 years, the pair have created an amazing garden that they never really set out to build.

The Addition of Cast Off Plants

Along the way, the gardenerrs also became members of Operation Wildflower (OWF), which is an association of plant lovers who save plants from being destroyed when development transforms a piece of natural vegetation into a township, road, dam, mine, etc.

OWF members collect and replant threatened plants on their own properties rather than seeing them bulldozed and lost. This is how many of the large aloes and agaves came to find a home here.

South Africa is blessed with a rich botanical history, and this group hopes to help it remain the pride of the nation.

From rocks to plants to odd bits of wood, It is extraordinary to realize what you can create from everyone else’s cast offs.

Cairn made of flat stones piled high with two twisting tree branches on top, nestled in a verdant South African forested area. The clear and sunny sky casts warm light on the rockery, illuminating the surrounding greenery and trees.
Stone cairns crowned with dead branches pay homage to the African continent’s ancient kraals and cities.
A serene natural pond surrounded by rocks, lush greenery, and tall trees. A South African rockery with cacti and various plants adds to the dense foliage. Sunlight filters through the overhead canopy, creating a tranquil and picturesque scene.

An African Red stone landscape of beautiful rocks.

The garden started with a love of rocks, arranging them, sculpting them, and making artistic arrangements with them.

The scale of the stone structures is hard to overstate. This is a magnum opus of rockeries.

A lush, green forest scene depicts dry-stone ruins and a charming rockery blending seamlessly with the natural landscape. Sunlight filters through the trees, illuminating intricate stone walls, steps, and pathways, highlighting the historical significance of this serene garden.
A desert garden is filled with various types of succulent and cactus plants. Tall spiky plants with orange flowers dominate the foreground, while assorted greenery and desert vegetation populate the background. The rockery and dirt pathways add to the rugged landscape, reminiscent of South African vistas.
Operation Wildflower brought more plants, and donated rocks from farming neighbors have, over the years, transformed the hillside – proving that not all gardens emerge only from a love of green things.

Visiting the Garden at Magaliesberg

If you would like to visit the Garden at Magaliesberg- Make an appointment through their website.

A full article at Visi provides more information about the garden (see more images) and its creators.

All Images from Visi and Magaliesberg.

See this article for more information about the art and artists.

More Rock Garden Posts:

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  1. Jenn says:

    Gallery option – The “next’ sends me back to the top of the page in the Chrome browser. So I have to scroll back down to see the image.
    I like the big photo. And the garden is amazing.

  2. Matt says:

    I like the slideshow tools at awaytogarden.com the best. You should ask Margaret what she uses.

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