McGregor Photo Gallery

The first weekend in October is the time for McGregor’s annual Open Gardens, with a theme this year of water-wise and indigenous gardens. Ten gardeners within the village and one local wine estate opened their gardens to the public, with nothing more than a voluntary donation to charity being asked in return.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

The gardens themselves ranged from formal to rambling, from the acre to the hard-won ground in an informal settlement. This gallery is not exhaustive, so if you have any images you would like to contribute we would be very glad to show them.

The water-wise theme is particularly topical, given the drought we are having, and also something we should always consider when designing a garden for an arid area such as the Klein Karoo. How much of our water does your garden use? What’s the environmental cost of a lawn? What would it need if it primarily contained indigenous plants - after all, they evolved to survive here without our help!

We have a number of experienced water-wise gardeners in McGregor who would be only too happy to offer advice.  A list of contact numbers will be coming soon........

Then my Lord He said unto me:
Do you like my garden so pure?
You may live in this garden if you keep the waters clean:
And I’ll return in the cool of the day.
[Jean Ritchie/trad]

Not exactly pictures of McGregor - not even close – but for the Christmas launch to the site’s Photo Gallery we have……. snow and ice, frosted ivy, wintry mists and a cold, cold sun …… images of a traditional European Christmas.

For a few weeks the site is being webmastered from the UK and, given that quite a number of people have asked to see some photos of the snow, where better to show them than on the website.

The cold and icy images are from the start of the December which, with the bright, clear skies was stunning to see and wonderfully dry and fresh.

The snowy pics are from the third week. There was around 25cm of snow around here, and Heathrow Airport had been in chaos for days!