Passionate about the trees and birds
Mike and Monica Amm (80) have been living at Macadamia Retirement Village in Tzaneen for just over a year.
TZANEEN – Mike and Monica Amm (80) have been living at Macadamia Retirement Village in Tzaneen for just over a year.
They bought a house with a Tzaneen Dam frontage and an indigenous bird park.
The garden was nonexistent but because of Monica’s gardening expertise and Em-Extend, the garden, which includes a vegetable garden, is fully established now.
Em-Extend, a Japanese invention, is a fermented product consisting of beneficial micro-organisms. This organic fertiliser and compost softens the soil and improves plant growth and crop production. Mike buys the concentrate from the Pretoria depot and dilutes it with molasses and other beneficial agents.
The Amm’s vegetable garden is thriving despite the presence of vervet monkeys. “The monkeys haven’t raided our vegetable patch yet. However, when they do, we’ll devise a scare tactic of some kind. We respect the vervet monkeys and do not feed them,” Monica says.
Mike grew up in Mokopane and moved to Tzaneen when he married Monica. Monica’s grandfather, Bill Tooley, was the first citrus farmer in the area and started Kings Walden in Agatha.
The Amms farmed in the Letsitele Valley for 47 years. Their success lay in orchards of fibreless mangoes and bananas. They had a high-tech warehouse and exported fruit.
Their farm was the first to be land claimed in the district. “Negotiations were amicable and we were paid in full,” Monica says. The couple then found ground at Agatha and went the organic route with granadillas, using Em-Extend.
They hung up their farming boots to retire to Macadamia Retirement Village.
The couple now devote their time to their other passions and are keen dendrologists (studying trees), twitchers (a birdwatcher whose main aim is to collect sightings of rare birds) and travellers. Mike has been marking trees for years and is often seen driving around the retirement village on his red Yamaha with his lug box of labels, wires and tools.
Mike was also co-author of the definitive book: Trees and Shrubs of Mpumalanga and the Kruger National Park. The 700-page book took five years to research. “I’d get together with co-authors Ernst Schmidt, Mervyn Lötter, Warren McCleland, and John Burrows and we’d go through all the slides and chose the best for the book. The book is into its second edition,” Mike says.
“Peter Williams introduced us to the chief of forestry in Pretoria, Fried von Breitenbach, who started the Dendrological Society in South Africa. Fried and his wife, Juta, took us everywhere to identify trees.
“The Dendrological Society headquarters are in the UK. I was made an honorary member of the German Dendrological Society and was given a copper commemorative coin too.”
Mike’s other interest is furniture making and he makes great pieces of furniture out of matumi wood.
Monica designed the gardens at the Coach House and managed them for 18 years.
Together with Patricia Baragwanath form Haenertsburg she worked in the Magoebaskloof Hotel gardens.
