Good news and bad news

Many plants are thriving in the Biodiversity Garden. Below Agapanthus 'Everblue' is in full flower, with its neat compact blooms.


But I'm afraid it's not all good news: in some of the thicket areas we are losing plants due to a combination of overwatering and poor drainage. The subsoil here is a combination of fine clay and stone. This makes a kind of natural concrete which offers very little natural drainage and penetration.

It is sobering to see some of the hardiest coastal thicket plants dying - including species such as wild camphor, bietou, wild olive and Rhus. They don't like wet feet. On the other hand Myrica cordata (waxberry - below in the foreground) doesn't bat an eye. Perfectly happy! Milkwoods seem to cope better too. It is interesting that for one species - Tarconanthus camphoratus (wild camphor) - the smaller 10kg plants are fine, whereas several large 100kg plants have died. Once again it makes a case for planting small plants when establishing a garden. It is almost always better in the long run.


The good news is that the animals are settling in well. The beaded animals have acquired a rusty hue - maybe due to oxidation of the copper wire.

Pebble spirals and things

For Biodiversity Garden logo we chose the Fibonacci spiral - a shape commonly found in nature: for example in shells, protea cones, and the arrangement of leaves on a stem. We reintroduced the Fibonacci spiral as a design element in the Make a Difference display.

Here a sweeping spiral balustrade (made by Roddy McGuffog) is echoed on the ground as a pebble spiral, beautifully executed by rock artist Rob Mckenzie & ULS staff. The shape and proportions are perfect - it is art, nature and beauty combined.







Hanging on the balustrade are timber leaves. On each leaf is one idea on how to make a difference: how we can protect biodiversity. Roddy had the leaves precision-cut out of marine ply and took them to Piet Botha in Suurbraak to burn-etch the leaf veins, and the text.







Suurbraak is a small village about 3 hours' drive from Cape Town. I hope Piet comes to the City one day to admire his handiwork in the Biodiversity Garden.

More artists behind the animals

For the Foodweb display we required a honeybadger, three snakes, an owl and some rodents. The idea is to show the relationship between predators and their prey, and to offer food for thought:

What happens to owls when we put out rat poison? What happens when we kill snakes, or when farmers poison honeybadgers? The message is that our actions have consequences: they can upset the predator-prey balance.




Isaac Mukonde (Wayachete Trading) rose to the challenge and co-ordinated artworks from various township artists. Here Isaac is seen with the honeybadger: a magnificent specimen, perfectly poised to attack a puff adder among the grass.


I visited Du Noon to look at the sculptures while they were being made - and we made some adjustments to sizes and shapes.

Detail on the honeybadger:

The cobra in typical striking pose. Isaac did research on the various snakes required: a cobra, puff adder and mole snake.

And here the giant ant for the display entitled: Can an ant change a landscape?

The answer is yes - visit the Biodiversity Garden to find out why.

Reflections

Pond in the Biodiversity Garden.
Dragonflies by Streetwires

The Jewel

Walking through the Biodiversity garden you will find a colourful jewel under the Shade dome: it's a mosaic designed by Fiona Berrisford and Mary Visser. For the design concept they chose the cell - the basic building block of all biodiversity. It really couldn't have been more Spot On.



They started on the mosaic in May 2010, just as World Cup fever was mounting. Fiona and Mary designed and prepared most of the cell elements in the studio, and arrived with boxes and boxes of tiles, all pre-sorted according to colour. The on-site installation took just over a week.

Fiona Berrisford (left) and Mary Visser (right)

A mitochondrion: it's involved in respiration - remember?

Such detail: the subtle colours and tones

The mosaic is almost there: here it is before grouting.


And a few months after it was finished. With nucleus, ribosomes, vacuole, a Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, chloroplasts... and starch granules.

Clever and beautiful.

A dome for shade

Central to the Biodiversity Garden is a large steel dome designed by De Villiers Sheard. Domes are lovely structures to look at and to be under - whether it's a Renaissance dome or a Khoikhoi matjieshuis - and considering the precedent, I felt it would make the perfect focal point to the garden.

Over time climbers will grow up the mesh and completely cover the dome, so that it becomes a shady arbor inside. Low walls provide informal seating, and there are framed views onto the surrounding Demonstration gardens and the lake beyond.



Domes are no longer common in modern architecture, so I received some raised eyebrows at the suggestion. I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to the engineers Garry Sheard and Dave Stonestreet for rising to the challenge and helping us realise this part of the design.

The dome is 9 meters in diameter with 9 ribs, each of 76mm galvanised steel pipe. This is surprisingly little steel to span such a large area.





I love the geometry and the apparent simplicity of the structure.



Mesh panels cover the dome to provide support for climbers.




A large poster provides a visual summary of the Biodiversity Garden - introducing the main themes and where the displays can be found. A mosaic lies like a decorative carpet on the floor and shadow patterns add a dynamic element.


It is indeed a lovely space to hang out.

Khoikhoi huts - Then and now

One of the 3 theme areas in the Biodiversity Garden is 'People and Plants' - where we wanted to show how much biodiversity is part of our lives: how we eat it, use it for medicine, shelter and that it's an integral part of our language and culture. To put it clumsily but succintly : we are because of biodiversity - it is integral to our lives.

Included is a stylised display of what life may have looked like about 500 years ago at the Cape, when the Khoikhoi herders were living here.


There are some domed huts (reminiscent of matjieshuise) surrounded by grassy renosterveld, some fat-tailed sheep and a fire hearth area with artefacts such as bones, ostrich shells and shells.


That same area - a few months before. Drainage required in fire hearth area.

The Khoikhoi made domed huts using local materials: wood for the frame, reeds to make mats and animal gut to tie it all together. The huts were cool inside, lightweight, and easy to put up and take down - well-suited to their nomadic lifestyle, in search of grazing for their livestock.

So who would be able to do a modern interpretation of this concept, using today's local materials? Enter Stephen Lamb (of Touching this earth lightly). He rose to the challenge and made these beautiful structures from invasive alien myrtle wood. They are modelled on the traditional matjieshuis, using modern materials and techniques to make them more durable. The wood was harvested at new moon, so that it would require no chemical preservative.

Here is the first hut, shown as if still under construction.


And a few months later, after the planting and interpretive signage is in place...

For one of the huts Stephen used animal hide ties - just like the riempies and bokderms of old...

The canvas is a modern touch, providing some welcome shade.



I just love the juxtaposition of the huts and the Stadium.


Andrew - seen here stitching canvas onto the hut.

The domed Khoikhoi huts served as inspiration for the Shade Dome - more about that in the next post.

Today - 20 September

Today I nearly stepped on an egg - a beautiful speckled egg, only a few feet from the main path. About thirty meters away were the parents: a pair of blacksmith plovers. They didn't look stressed and left me to go about my work, planting labels.


In total there will be 200 plant labels in the Biodiversity Garden. Considering we have over 330 plant species, we had to be selective and not all species are labelled. I admit I have mixed feeling about labels: on the one hand they highlight the enormous diversity we have, and on the other hand they clutter the landscape and detract from the beauty of the displays. And the very act of naming and putting things into boxes takes us from our hearts into our heads.


Lampranthus reptans, I hear myself think, and move on. Instead of stopping to marvel at the luminous flowers and silver grey stems.


Here is a new one to me - Hermannia multiflora, planted in the renosterveld displays. Full of small orange flowers - those twisted corollas so typical of Hermannia.




I like the way the little grysbok is close to the Acacia karroo (Sweet Thorn) - as if it is about to nibble its leaves.





I notice there is a wide range of colour forms among the Babiana angustifolia we planted in the renosterveld. Species variation? - or are they hybrids, I wonder.




This display is entitled 'Can an ant change a landscape?' and tells the story of the invasive Argentine ant and its impact on local species. All the plants in this bed are myrmecochorous - i.e. have seeds which are dispersed by ants. Which gave me a fantastic excuse to plant showy pincushions, silver Podalyria sericea and aromatic buchus...

Leucospermum cordifolium

And above: recent progress on the Fibonacci spiral. Rob McKenzie is busy with the pebble detail. Next will be a band of much smaller diamond quartz pebbles - translucent and beautifully smooth.