Our Garden and Cafe Veggie Patch
Historically designed to mirror gorgeous terraced Mediteranean gardens so popular in the 1920’s, the original layout of the Casa Labia garden followed a rather formal structure. The key elements being the structured terraces behind the focal fountain and a central lawn framed by the ocean, the house, the slope leading up to Boyes Drive, and finally by a seawater-fed swimming pool. The swimming pool is now unfortunately a flower bed, but here’s hoping that the road construction will reveal the pipes and perhaps we can resurrect the pool one day.
The terraces were traditionally planted to a plethora of exotic flowering plants and the upper reaches of the slope below Boyes Drive (the property extends from Main Road to Boyes Drive) were left to indigenous fynbos. Today the indigenous fynbos-covered slopes remain, save for the odd and most unwelcome Acacia longifolia (long-leaved wattle) and Lantana camara that we are rapidly getting rid of. The remaining terraces are slowly being transformed into a lovely pastoral space. The lower terrace is planted to approximately 400 vines of varying variety and the upper terrace to a collection of olive trees, both mission and oil olives.
The view out to sea is now punctuated by the obligatory sea-side “palm-tree avenue” and the beds between the trees are interspersed with plantings of Agapanthus, Statis, Leucosperum cordifolium “High Gold”, Coleonema album – the confetti bush and the very striking or Echium candicans – Pride of Madeira. The remainder of the garden manages to seamlessly blend a combination of old world European plantings along a common thread of indigenous focus. Lavenders soften the pond edges and Indian Hawthorn hedges mirror the structure of the walls without the hard edge, whilst delicate ericas and hardy proteas show that they are made of stern stuff as they flourish in the difficult maritime climate.
Other innovations include our vegetable and herb gardens. Both were planted to provide the café with a regular supply of seasonal and fresh veggies and herbs, and we are very pleased to report that they are both doing their jobs splendidly. Season-dependant, we have a fresh source of carrots, beetroot, radishes, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, and a wide variety of herbs, and hopefully in a few years time we might even have some olive oil and wine to add to the mix.
Please feel free to come and explore and enjoy our beautiful garden.
