How to create a jungle garden

Dale Webster came to Kenya in 2006 uncertain about how long he and his family would stay. But as long as his wife’s job status was secure, they could stay indefinitely in the lovely Loresho house they’d found through friends.

The former philosophy and art history lecturer from the UK doesn’t really consider himself a gardener, which is one reason why he’s instructed the road-side gardener who comes occasionally to help him ‘clean up’ the yard to ‘never prune’ or cut back any of his shrubs or trees without asking first.

“When we first arrived, I wanted to create a jungle as quickly as possible in our backyard, so we looked for as many fast-growing trees as we could find,” says the man who went from being an art historian to an acclaimed artist since his arrival in Nairobi.

“I don’t sell my art although, at times, I may swop a painting with some local artist whose work I admire,” he says.

That un-moneyed exchange may partially explain why Dale’s home is filled with incredible paintings by everyone from Michael Soi, Peter Elungat, Chelenge van Rampelberg and Peterson Kamwathi to Justus Kyalo, Florence Wangui, Thom Ogonga and Xavier Verhoist.

Wild

In the past eight years, it would seem Dale has gotten his wish to have a jungle for a garden. He happily describes it as being ‘wild’ and jungle-like.

In fact, it is overgrown and many of the trees he planted have sky-rocketed nearly rivalling the tallest ones in his next door neighbour’s yard.

But if one wouldn’t describe the garden as ‘manicured’ or carefully planned, it has a beauty of its own, especially given the lush diversity of the greenery.

Probably his tallest trees are the bamboo that he’s planted along his driveway and the umbrella trees of which he has several scattered around the garden. His jacaranda, which was recently in full bloom is also quite tall as is the oleander and the palms.

Self-seeded

Ironically, one of the tallest trees in the garden is what Dale describes as “self-seeded” (meaning seeds must have found their way from the neighbour’s tree over to his land). He’s not able to recall the tree’s name at first.

“I’m not very much of a tree man,” he claims. I excuse him as I know his mind is probably elsewhere, particularly with the current portrait he’s painting, portraiture being the creative specialty that he’s cultivated since he arrived in the country.

The one way he can best describe that tree is by naming it as ‘Van Gogh’s’ meaning it was the same iconic tree found in the paintings by the 19th century Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh which he painted while living in the south of France.

Before I left, Dale remembered Van Gogh’s tree was a cypress, and in fact, there was a slightly larger version of the same tree located right on the other side of his fence.

There were several other “self-seeded” plants in the Webster’s backyard which Dale had never bothered to remove although he isn’t terribly fond of the white daisies that grow as shrubs both beside the driveway and just outside their veranda.

But as he still wants that jungle-like effect, it hasn’t made much sense to uproot plants that had found their own ways into his yard.

The shrub that he spoke most favourably about was the aloe vera which he said grew “all over the garden.”

Noting that there are possibly over a dozen different varieties of aloe vera growing in various parts of Kenya, Dale says he has four or five types that he acquired at Malu near Naivasha, a place where the plant is prolific.

Great for relieving pain from burns and a wide range of other maladies, he describes the plant as a wonder drug whose leaves are healing, but when the plant is processed into an ointment or oil, it can be used for all sorts of medicinal purposes.

Sisal

Showing me the portion of the garden meant to grow vegetables, Dale apologises for the fact that none were growing currently due to the drought.

“After the recent sudden rains, the garden came alive,” he says rather sadly as it hasn’t rained since and the garden is now feeling the effects. Nonetheless, his banana and avocado trees are surviving; so are the mango and loquat trees; and even the poinsettia.

His sisal and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow bushes also contribute to the beauty of the Webster garden.

So it looks as if Dale, (with a little help from the wind and his roadside gardener) has seen his wish come true. His garden merits the semi-manicured Webster ‘jungle’ tag.