What does the jungle at the Lost City, North Island in the Seychelles and Steyn City’s sprawling parkland have in common? They’ve all been tended by the green fingers of Patrick Watson.
Once upon a time, Lionel Phillips and his wife Florence – two of Johannesburg’s most influential early citizens – walked the hallways of Villa Arcadia. Years later, the passages rang with children’s voices as the building took on its new purpose as an orphanage for Jewish children. Nowadays, they’re filled with the tapping of shoes as employees of Hollard Insurance walk in and out of its gracious rooms.
The gardens surrounding the beautiful building have changed as much as the inhabitants – thanks to the vision and creativity of Patrick Watson, one of South Africa’s most prominent landscape artists. When he first joined the team to restore Villa Arcadia, the rocky outcrops which are now part of the premises’ signature appearance were buried deep underground. The succulents that create such a distinctive sense of space had yet to take root. The handmade gates and the woodland that turns this 30-acre site into so much more than an office park were all still a part of Watson’s imagination.
Fast forward 18 years, and those rocks have been unearthed (painstakingly, by hand), the roses dating back from 1810 meld seamlessly with newer additions, and the entire scene is one that would have made Herbert Baker, the building’s original architect, rather pleased. Patrick has, after all, remained true to the principles he held dear, like letting his respect for the natural world turn his designs into a showcase for its splendour.
Patrick has other things in common with Baker, like their shared passion for Johannesburg. ‘Baker always said there was an energy here. He thought it was something to do with the altitude, but I think it’s because Johannesburg was built by businessmen who brought an intellect to the city. It was founded on gold, and there’s something glamorous about that. And the glamour remains.’
Watson’s fondness for Joburg isn’t surprising, given that he grew up here, and it’s here that he discovered his affinity for gardens. ‘All little kids love gardening. I was just playing around – I suppose if I lived in the South Pole I would have been making ice sculptures but, being here, I was surrounded by the best of nature.’ By age eight, he was ordering proteas from Cape Town for his parents’ garden, happier tinkering in the flower beds than in the classroom by far. ‘I hate anything mindless, so school was not for me. I think if I could have delegated the work I would have done well, because that’s what I do now. The vision is mine, but the execution is done by others.’ That dislike of mindlessness is visible in his designs. ‘I don’t just make funny shapes. I’m more interested in things that you can use physically or that make you feel something spiritually. You can evoke emotion in a garden.’
He was eager to pursue the possibilities of art expressed in planting as soon as he finished school, but landscape architecture hadn’t yet taken off in South Africa. Instead, he went to work at Ferndale Ridge Nurseries, where he found himself ‘in my element’. It also gave him an education without compare. ‘We used to learn crafts from our parents, rather than from an instructor. Education doesn’t have to be institutional.’ From there, he worked on his knowledge of exotics, did a stint as a contractor (‘because it’s important to know how buildings are built’) and, after a few years, was asked by Professor Willie Meyer to work on the gardens of the University of Potchefstroom.
By the time he met Sydney Press – founder of Edgars and the first of his maverick clients, he’d ‘been doing my own thing’ for a while, displaying the type of free-thinking style that attracted other visionaries, including the likes of Sol Kerzner and Douw Steyn.
It was very much a meeting of the minds when Patrick joined forces with clients like this. ‘They wanted to do amazing things,’ he says – although, nowadays, he prefers smaller projects, where he is able to get to know the person and the situation before coming up with a concept. Every nuance matters, he says: ‘You have to really know a client … their dreams and what they like.’ But it’s equally important to acknowledge the setting around you … an aloe from the Eastern Cape won’t look quite as good in a Johannesburg garden as an endemic species because it’s the wrong shade of green, for example. That said, he isn’t one to let himself get bogged down by minutiae. ‘I’m not obsessed with having control. You can’t be, as a landscape artist. Gardening is all about change. You plant a seed and one day it will become a one thousand year old tree. You can try to edit nature, but in the end you have to let it do its own thing.’
So you think you can garden?
Patrick might be known for iconic projects that have been built around a concept, but his own Greenside garden has been developed with cast-offs. Most of our gardens are the same – or, at least, they might lack the kind of artistry that goes hand in hand with landscaping. But being an amateur isn’t a bad thing, Patrick maintains. ‘Amateurs are the best gardeners because, often, they’re hungry to know everything they can about plants – how and what they need to grow.’ Familiarise yourself with the basics, he advises, then take your garden to the next level by planning around concept – otherwise, you’ll end up with a mishmash.
Text: LISA WITEPSKI. Photos: ELSA YOUNG and Salomé Forgeot Guillemé
