With his trim physique, golden curls and cornflower eyes, Leon Kluge could grace the cover of GQ. Instead, the gently spoken Adonis is making a name for himself internationally as the South African equivalent of his hero, Irish landscape gardener extraordinaire, Daiarmuid Gavin.
This year Gavin carried off the coveted gold medal for Best on Show for his display, “The Irish Sky Garden” at the Chelsea Flower Show. Admirers of Kluge’s unique style predict that the accolade will be his in the not-too-distant future.
Kluge was in Durban this week to create a display that will act as a permanent legacy of COP17 and which will educate visitors on climate change, biodiversity, the cultural legacy of the people of KZN, and the role of traditional medicinal plants in promoting health.
The result is the construction of a living “beehive” in the shape of a traditional Zulu hut with a 9m dome and a vertical garden. It is already attracting crowds at the Botanical Gardens.
The commission was a natural fit for Kluge, who has green blood flowing in his veins. His father was the curator of the Lowveld Botanical Gardens for many years, and his grandfather, curator of the Betty’s Bay Botanical Gardens. Small wonder then that he is passionate about indigenous flora and fauna, which he uses to spectacular effect in the vertical gardens that have cemented his reputation.
The concept of vertical gardening is still fresh in South Africa, but the growing consciousness that climate change is inevitable and that man will have to adapt his environment to counter the effects of global warming, has spurred the demand for gardens that are integrated with architectural structures to provide natural temperature control.
“Vertical gardens are a phenomenon in nature that has existed since the beginning of time,” Kluge explained. “They occur naturally on cliff faces, in dense forests and on bare rocks. Frequently they are naturally populated by lithophytes and epiphytes, but contemporary landscape designers have a huge variety of options at their disposal.”
Born in Sabie, Kluge attended school in Nelspruit and qualified as a landscape architect at the former Pretoria Technikon (now the Tshwane University of Technology). He then travelled the world to hone his craft, working at, among others, a gardening firm in the Comores and Israel’s largest landscape company, Givatt Brenner, in Jerusalem. Back home he established the Fever Tree Nursery in his hometown. Kluge’s first commission to create a vertical garden came from a client who had seen an example in Paris, designed by legendary French botanist Patrick Blanc.
Some of Blanc’s designs are more than 40m high. He pioneered the concept in urban areas when he realised there were a host of positive spin-offs to lifting the traditional garden off the ground and using it as a cladding for buildings. In both colder and warmer climates the gardens provide better insulation due to the thermal isolation effect of plant matter.
“That first job was a real challenge, but by the time it was over, I was hooked,” said Kluge
“Each project has its own unique challenges but the concept has unlimited scope. You are forced out of your comfort zone as you explore ways of realising your designs, both in terms of architectural support structures and plant materials.
“Another benefit of this form of gardening as opposed to more traditional methods is it is ridiculously easy to maintain,” he explained. “The varieties of plant that grow in vertical gardens in nature require only the minimum of bedding material. Usually they attach themselves to fissures in the rocks. They obtain all the nutrients they need from rain water.”
In his pursuit of ideas for his designs, and also plant specimens, the designer scales cliffs and penetrates densely forested areas, equipped with a sketchbook and camera to capture nature’s beauty.
“There is the most exquisite garden hidden from the public eye in Mpumalanga, and I go there regularly for inspiration,” he said. “It is a massive sinkhole that has been transformed over hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years into a green paradise. We have to abseil into the depths. It is a transformative experience.”
Early this year, as plans coalesced for COP17, Kluge and another internationally acclaimed floral designer, Cape Town-based David Davidson, were commissioned to conceptualise a permanent display that would be a legacy of the conference. The scope of the project fired their imaginations, and they spent many hours at the drawing board.
“Because the concept was so novel in Durban, it took a lot of meetings to get the buy-in of all the respective roleplayers,” said Davidson. “The project seemed to have stalled for a while, and then suddenly we were given the all-clear and it was all systems go as we raced against the looming deadline.”
The designers had been mandated to incorporate the traditional Zulu “beehive” hut as an integral element of their concept. Taking the basic shape of the hut as their starting point, they deconstructed it to open it on two sides to the elements, and then used the soaring space inside the 9m-high dome to suspend a hanging garden of plants indigenous to KZN.
The outside of the dome was planted with an array of vygies, which will soon provide a blaze of colour. All the plants have been attached to a double-layer felt lining attached to the dome.
They are fed nutrients through a sprinkler system and a stream bubbles beneath a raised walkway that leads the visitors around an interior wall festooned with rapidly rooting foliage. The water is collected in underground tanks and recycled.
On a baking hot day the interior of the installation is cooled by a fine mist of water.
“In three months’ time the superstructure will be completely covered,” Leon said. “It will look like a completely organic form that occurred naturally.”
The “living beehive,” as it has been dubbed, is surrounded by veld grasses that will soon form an undulating field, as well as plantings of indigenous medicinal plants and herbs, and the extraordinary “spek boom” which produces more oxygen than any other tree on the planet. And the beehive is becoming home to birds and insect life. “We have even had two snakes already – it’s evolving as nature should,” said Leon proudly. - Sunday Tribune
l More on his work, at: leonklugegardendesign.co.za