Events

This is a members-only garden tour (for insurance reasons), and we will limit it to 30 members on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please send a response to [email protected] to reserve your spot.

We (Cathy and Harold Zappe) moved to the US in 1999 from Cape Town, South Africa. We had been gardening there with indigenous plants from the Fynbos biome of the Western Cape so it was natural for us to attempt to do the same in Alabama. It was difficult initially to find native plants so we have used some cultivars and non-natives. The property we bought was nine acres in Harvest, with an older rundown house and several outbuildings. It did have natural elevation changes which gave it more scope for landscaping, a creek and a small patch of woods. The land is multi use with pastures for horses, farmyard and orchard for free range chickens, a vegetable garden using lasagna gardening techniques, a wild meadow and a more formal garden using mostly native plants. The garden is divided into a series of “rooms”, has three flowing water features, plenty of seating, and uses stonework to create structure and interest. The meadow is in its fifth year of succession and has something new each year. We try to plant what will provide a succession of blooming through the year and feed the birds and bugs at all stages and allow things to be a bit weedy so that it provides cover for caterpillars and nestlings. There are about 35 different species of native tree, 14 species of native shrubs as well as many species of perennials, annuals and grasses. We have seen over a 110 species of birds and about 35 species nest on our property. We have seen 18 species of mammal, 30 butterfly species, 10 reptile species and an uncatalogued number of amphibians and other insects.