Gardens
By Mike Viviers, Fancourt Horticulturist
Long ago I realised that one of the functions of plants was to make life more bearable. It was when a client said "Fancourt's gardens have turned it into a holiday place instead of a hotel" that I realised that the plants were fulfilling their function.
It started with a request by the owner, Sabine Plattner, to turn the then exceedingly formal Fancourt into "a garden with something wild to it".
The existence of a nursery was cemented when the Plattners decided to build The Links, the fourth golf course at Fancourt, and to introduce a mature tree transplanting programme. About 700 mature trees, obtained from as far afield as 300km from George, were transplanted onto the Montagu and Outeniqua championship golf courses. At the same time, more than 160 000 grasses and plants were grown in-house over a seven month period, thereby significantly reducing plant requirement costs for Fancourt.
Not only does the nursery provide plants, but it is also used to "chip and turn" all vegetable matter at Fancourt into compost.
Over time the gardens at Fancourt gained a momentum of their own, and we came to realise that we actually have an extensive collection of plants. The next step was a logical one: to shift our focus to variety and collect as many species of plants that would grow in the Garden Route area. Today, we have an extraordinary variety of species.
The Fancourt horticulture division embraces the following:
- Providing plants for Fancourt
- Garden maintenance
- Tree care
- Nursery
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