Creepers Take Over the Walls

About 40 kilometres from Nanyuki town exists a spot with lush foliage where birds, beetles and millipedes call home.

It is the spot that hosts the Segera Mission, founded by US national Carlton Cleason in 2002 when he first visited Kenya.

While the entire mission occupies 36 acres, it is the portion with the garden where the main house sits that is a showstopper.

Any visitor cannot fail to notice the rich vegetation some of which has engulfed the buildings, at this semi-arid locality.

The ivy creepers stand out most, climbing walls with the aggressive foliage adding colour, variety and character to the rather ordinary buildings.

Serge Musasilwa, the director of the mission, said having the creepers grow on buildings is deliberate in the area surrounded by wilderness.

“Aside from the creepers affording us a cool atmosphere, they ensure snakes do not come into the house,” he said.

Plants tamper with the sun’s radiation by absorbing the rays and casting shadows, which in essence cools walls, roofs, windows and outdoor decks.

Much of the captured radiant energy by plants is used to evaporate water, which causes humidity to increase instead of air temperature.

Of all planting strategies, the installation of vines offers the fastest and cheapest relief from excessive heat. Vines growing up a wall provide a pocket of insulating air against the wall. The mission located just a few metres from River Ewaso Ng’iro draws some of its water from the river that crosses seven arid to semi-arid landscapes.

A well-manicured lawn sits right outside the main building hosting a variety of flowering and non-flowering plants.

Huge pink indigenous roses peep from a rich green bush that has been trimmed to make a waist-length perimeter wall at the front yard.

As if to compete with the pink rose blooms, different shades of the bougainvillea are scattered on various spots on yard.

Some have been left to grow into trees, yet others have been trimmed to blend well with the well-attended yard.

Weeping willow

The weeping willow tree stands right outside one of the entrances of the main house, as if to make a statement that ‘someone is watching every movement’.

Beneath the different species of trees on the yard are benches where people can sit and enjoy the cool whispers of the wind and chat the day away.

Birds hop from one tree to the next, with others opting to walk on the ground characterized with grass of different height, without a care in the world.

Further away from the house are traces of the succulents including the cactus, commonly found in arid and semi arid locations.

It is this foliage of trees, shrubs, vines and ground covers that offer a first defence against the blazing sun and overheated surroundings.

It is such delights of interacting with mature that give visitors the desire to extend stay at the Segera Mission.

Aside from offering shade, well-placed trees, shrubs and hedges guide prevailing winds toward living areas, dissipating both heat and humidity.

A funnel-shaped double border of plants will accelerate the speed of breezes, enhancing cooling effects.

Even with the wild animals walking freely outside the mission that locals speak highly of, it is its homely feel, its captivating garden and the people in it that make this oasis in the middle of nowhere the place to be.