Life & Work

Couple transforms garden into work of art

erica

Erica Rossler-Musch harvesting radishes from her garden. PHOTO | MARGARETTA WA GACHERU

If you’d asked Hellmuth or Erica Rossler-Musch 20 years ago whether they could imagine settling in Kenya, owning a 3.5 acre piece of land in Red Hill village not far from Limuru town and landscaping one of the most well-watered gardens in the region, they most likely would have said no.

The two had just met in Somaliland at the time, and both were heathcare workers content to travel solo and serve various NGOs all over Africa.

But finally, after bumping into one another several times, initially at the Save the Children Fund, they got the message: they were meant to be together!

He, the pharmacist and former lecturer in biochemistry at the Free University of Berlin, she the trained nurse and primary health specialist from Holland were getting set to settle down when they finally got hitched in 2004.

Then by an even more serendipitous route, they found the Red Hill land which Hellmuth immediately went to work on, renovating and landscaping with the help of friends from the Garden Centre near Village Market and, of course, Erica.

“It was Hellmuth who really had the vision of what the land could become,” she says admitting that initially she wasn’t all that impressed with the rickety old farmhouse that came with the land.

But her skepticism quickly changed as he began to not only transform the shabby old house into a simple but solid, elegant and modern abode.

He also began planting hundreds of plants, flowers, bushes, bamboo and berries as well as several succulents and spices—everything from jasmine and lavender to hibiscus and mint. He also planted loads of trees, including the mugumo, banana, yellow oleander and ebony.

The previous owners had also planted trees and shrubs, including bougainvillea, jacaranda and kei apple hedges. The trees, mostly Silver Oak, still stand tall at the perimeter of their land serving their original purpose as ‘wind breakers’.

Even so, Hellmuth has given the grounds an entirely different look, having carpeted a major portion of the land around the house with sturdy ever-green Zimbabwe grass.

One of the most beloved trees that the previous owners left standing was the tall stately avocado tree. Richly endowed with the nutritious green fruit, Hellmuth and Erica happily share their avocados with their staff.

Kitchen patch

They have also shared almost half their land with their gardener, cook and several neighbours to grow whatever they want, be it cabbages, sukuma wiki or sweet potatoes or all the above.

In the last few years, Erica has also established a vegetable and fruit garden of her own behind their home. There she grows all sorts of salads, radishes, tomatoes and baby strawberries.

The hedge around her garden patch is also covered in passion fruit vines, which the workers also imbibe.

The one set of fruits that Erica reserves for personal use are the berries, be they black, red raspberry, or strawberry since she loves making jams around Christmas time which she gives away during the holidays.

The one other feature of Hellmuth’s vision was an art gallery that he quickly built from scratch four years ago and which is now fully operational and called the Red Hill Art Gallery.

Conservation

But for me, the most impressive aspect of the Rossler-Musch’s design is the conservation element. Indeed, practically all of their needs for water are met as they draw from the underground 60,000 litre rain water tank that Hellmuth and his team constructed four years ago.

“The rain water we regularly collect is then pumped up into a 5000 litre tank. That’s the water we use to meet our everyday needs for things like washing clothes, running our sanitation system and even preparing hot beverages the water for which we always boil before use,” says Hellmuth who added that they otherwise buy bottled water for drinking.

A man who doesn’t like to see anything go to waste, once his team had dug out the soil to construct their underground tank, they used it to ‘sculpt’ slopes and contours to further beautify the grounds.

The previous owner was also water-conscious since he had dug a small underground water well that Hellmuth has modernised.

“We sealed off the well and installed another water pump which sends the water into an above-ground water tank,” says Hellmuth who uses that water to keep their grounds looking fresh and ever-green.

So while the Rossler-Musch’s are gaining a reputation for having one of the best contemporary art galleries in Kenya, they also deserve recognition for what they do with rain water: using very simple techniques to conserve it in order to meet their basic needs for water.