Elsa inspires green fingered brigade

SALT laden winds are a gardener’s nightmare, so it was not surprising that Elsa Pooley had everyone’s rapt attention when she spoke at the Crocworld Conservation Centre about the difficulty of coastal gardening recently.

The lively talk by Elsa, a renowned botanical artist, botanist, author, landscaper and pioneer of indigenous gardening, was one of a series of conservation talks that the centre is hosting to inspire people to be more active about conserving their unique coastal environment.

Elsa has had to contend with salt laden winds and other KwaZulu-Natal gardening trials and tribulations for many years and she has solved most of her problems by finding and using the correct indigenous plants for each situation. More than 45 years ago she first started experimenting with indigenous gardening techniques in the game reserves of Zululand.

Since then, she has worked on many landscaping projects, including laying out and maintaining the extensive and stunningly beautiful Crocworld Conservation Centre gardens. During her talk she used a photographic record of the creation of these gardens as well as stunning photographs of resilient indigenous plants to illustrate her points.

As well as listing a wonderful selection of hardy but attractive plants that gardeners could use in exposed areas, she explained how these could also be used as screens to protect more tender plants. She also spoke about plants that would tolerate shade.

It was amazing how many striking indigenous form plants, ground covers and colourful flowering plants there were for gardeners to use in difficult spots. As Elsa explained, these hardy natives had the added advantage of encouraging wildlife into the garden.

Her talk ended with a lively question and answer session, rounded off with a welcome tea and scone break. Then everyone accompanied Elsa on a walk around the Crocworld gardens. After seeing photographs of the barren, bulldozed, exposed piece of ground surrounding the buildings that she had to contend with after Crocworld was first built, her beautiful gardens were nothing short of a miracle.

First stop was the newly laid out shade garden, a series of lush, green beds and pathways set beneath mature trees. It was amazing what could be achieved in deep shade and how many striking flowers would bloom away happily without much sunlight.

After a thorough exploration of this inspiring section of the Crocworld gardens, Elsa and her guests returned to the sunshine. Walking to the parking lot, Elsa was able to point out many imaginative indigenous solutions there were when one needed to screen off utility areas.

The gardens, built on the heavily compacted soil of the car park, were nothing short of a revelation. By importing small quantities of top soil and relying heavily on a wide variety of water-wise succulents Elsa had created gorgeous flower beds and rock gardens that were a riot of colour.

The morning was not only extremely informative but entertaining and thoroughly inspiring as well. For a gardener there can be few bigger treats than strolling around a beautiful garden with its landscaping-genius creator. Elsa is just so generous with her knowledge, so enthusiastic about sharing her love of indigenous plants and so incredibly humble about her expertise and talent.

Her talk at Crocworld will be a hard one to follow.