Page 14 - Landscape-Issue142

PROJECT

and Dowsett says these plants created the
backbone to the installation. He and his
team added groundcovers, mostly in the
form of vygies, and wild grasses such as
Aristida junciformis. Natal lavender trees
and tree ferns were used as feature plants
for their height.
In terms of hard landscaping, Dowsett
says this was also a simple palette of gravel
and river boulders, with cobble-edging
around the seasonal colour beds.

Installation challenges
The initial landscape installation in 2005
outside the orthopaedic wing was located
on the banks of the Msunduzi River, and
engineers had installed reno mattresses
across the entire area to prevent erosion at
the 100 year floodline. Whilst they had left
numerous cavities for trees to be planted,
the remainder of the planting could only
take place in 300-400mm of topsoil. Where
possible, berms of topsoil were created to
allow for larger shrubs and smaller trees to
be planted, but that space was limited and
wild grasses were planted instead, as well as
groundcovers and perennials with smaller
root systems, and very drought resistant
plants. The reno mattresses meant that the
site was very well drained and the thin layer
of topsoil also dried out very quickly.
A further challenge occurred in some of
the internal courtyards, where landscaping
was not a requirement when the hospital
was first built. ‘Retro-fitting’ landscaping
The more natural and ‘wild’ landscaped areas are located on road verges and the outlying areas of the into these spaces required many hours of
hospital grounds work to break up concrete, remove sub-
base materials and bring in a suitable
growing medium. This was exacerbated
by the fact that all the courtyards were
only accessible via internal passages inside
the hospital between wards, theatres and
patients, and were ‘a maze of cables and
pipes’, according to Dowsett.
Irrigation and maintenance
The hospital is very diligent and conscious
about water saving and all irrigation is
done manually. In addition, Dowsett’s team
harvests water from the hospital kitchen
(left over from patients’ water jugs etc) to
use on the seasonal colour beds and pot
plants. This is done on a daily basis.
Three staff members are permanently on
site for maintenance, under the leadership
of an experienced and competent
supervisor. The team has received positive
feedback from members of the public,
who have complimented them on the
transformation of the hospital gardens.
The maintenance team is strictly focused
on the gardens, while a cleaning company
takes care of the parking and other areas of
the hospital grounds. Says Dowsett: “This
team looks after all regular maintenance,
as well as the revamp work of areas not
initially landscaped and the replacement of
seasonal colour.”

Information and photos supplied by
Greg Dowsett n

12 Landscape SA • Issue 142 2024