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Babylonstoren have in mind “ Tower of Babel ” in Dutch , and the eight Acre of garden at this restored eighteenth - century Cape Dutch farmstead and hotel in South Africa ’s Drakenstein Valley are , like their namesake , both monumental and invitingly bare . And yet , a walk through the basis may aid visitors do what that skyscraper of legend could not : touch heaven .
A map of the garden . Photo by : Babylonstoren .
“ Perhaps people find it peaceable because it ’s not aggressive , ” enunciate Babylonstoren ’s landscape interior decorator , French designer Patrice Taravella . “ Beauty is not an objective , it is the resultant role . ”
In the geometric gardens of Babylonstoren , a farmplace and hotel near Cape Town , South Africa , pathways paved with recycled peach pits crunch underfoot beside a gurgling , stone - lined stream that serves as the gardens ’ gravity - aided irrigation organization . Photo by : Cactus Branding ( good manners of Babylonstoren ) .
In 2007 , owner Karen Roos arrive at out to Taravella — who impressed her with his piece of work at Prieuré d’Orsan , his reimagined cloistered garden on the grounds of a restored 12th - 100 monastery in France ’s Berry province — and tasked him with create a completely 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 spicery route traders establish nearby Cape Town in 1652 , and the farms fence the colony provided sailing traders with fresh fruits and veggie .
Taravella begin by giving the garden great osseous tissue . A unbent line from the convertedkraal , where livestock were once kept , to the Babylonstoren koppie , or hill , service as the axis of the ground . Based on that anchor , the garden beam out in a pure grid with swell , rich row of yield Tree , vegetable patches , and herb hedge . “ For me , it ’s not the plants that make the garden , ” tell Taravella . “ In China and Japan , they do n’t employ plants at all . They use water and stones . The most important thing is the social structure . ”
The Western Cape ’s vibrant aboriginal species thrive in the garden . photograph by : Dookphoto.com ( courtesy of Babylonstoren ) .
Like a Wonderland chess board , each sizeable square is brimming with oddity . Pergolas cover in climbing rose wine or grapevines tower above disciplined rows of twisted guava tree diagram . More than 50 varieties of treillage - trained endocarp fruit are constitute sequentially by order of flowering — they bloom in a wave from one row to the next . In one square , three variety of prickly pear cacti form a tangle of strumpet ; in a neighboring block , visitors can walk barefooted through speculation patch of tranquillize chamomile . doer ducks , keep to patrol the vineyards for pesterer , beat and babble spiritedly from their playpen .
Students of local flora can explore 10 hectare of endangered endemic species , including example of Western Cape ’s divers fynbos flowered kingdom . For three weeks in spring , visitor enjoy M of auburn and butter - colour clivia that blanket the banks of Babylonstoren ’s watercourse like “ a river of blooms , ” tell Taravella .
mantle farms once offer their bounty to sailor traveling to and from the Far East . Photo by : Babylonstoren .
The holding will evolve with the growth of new plantings , such as milkwood Tree that may live for 1,000 years and tight - growing carob tree near the guest cottages . But for Taravella , there is no reason to depend toward the future . “ A garden is like a human , ” he says . “ A man or char is always interesting , whether at two month , two years , 20 years , or 50 years . And like a human , there is not a metre when the garden becomes finished . ”
Ganda Suthivarakom is the site director of Saveur.com .
