ZIMBALI and a reason for gardening in a gentler manner while living in an illusionary but functional forest habitat.
The following paragraph is offered as a form of inspiration by Arthur Lindsay Sadler (1882-1970) served as Professor of Oriental Studies at the University of Sydney. 
He wrote on Japanese Architecture:
“[The garden] should be naturally clean like a forest glade, but not aggressively neat. Therefore the Tea Masters considered that a boy or an old man . . . . was best entrusted with the [sweeping and cleaning], because they would not be too painstaking. Leaves that have been blown about under the trees and between the stones look interesting and should not be disturbed.”
The seedlings in these forested non-footprint areas that are germinating, are now beginning to create the third dimension to the understorey that has been missing and now is very pleasing to observe. (see the exclosure plots on Milkwood and at the Holy Hill)
This understorey layer is what keeps the skulking forest birds and mammals like the Blue Duiker, Bushbuck, Robin-Chats, Thrushes, Warblers, Flufftails, Brownbuls, Greenbuls and Bulbuls in food. Just go to my favourite site on the Holy Hill the large chipping/compost heap or dump and you will see these animals all feeding and scratching, especially the Banded Mongoose, in the leaf litter for insects and other grubs that hide under the rotting organic matter.
The choice of words is a very important aspect of writing this article. The impressions that are conjured up by using the word dump are of places that are degenerate and untidy. Well these are the places that the wildlife gravitate to, to survive because there is no food on the rest of the Estate because it has been raked away and thrown in the “dump”.
What is being suggested is to spread this food over a larger surface area on the properties. The reduction in labour needed to sweep and rake can be put to more productive use in; trimming encroaching Coast Silver-leaf - Brachylaena discolor trees that grow out towards your houses, into the roads and pathways, removing alien plants, planting more trees and shrubs in the Estate.
It is a real thrill to walk these forested areas in the winter months and find Spotted Ground Thrushes (or what many of us still call Natal Thrushes) scratching and feeding in the leaf litter of the dune bush that is such a prominent feature of the original Zimbali. Humans and their quest to grow crops and build houses in forest habitats endanger this species in South Africa due mainly to the habitat that this bird inhabits is being destroyed. Now to see these Thrushes on your Estate is really great because you must be doing something right. For a few of these birds to spend winter in Zimbali will at least survive to migrate back down the coast to breed in the cooler forests of the Transkei coastal belt.
Some further plants that should be encouraged as understorey species are the Buckwheat - Isoglossa woodii, Dicliptera heterostegia, Phaulopsis imbricata, Plectranthus verticillatus, Droguetia iners and Mackaya bella not quite a dune species but relished by antelope.
These species of plants above are not chosen randomly they are wonderful food plants for forest animals like Bushbuck and Blue Duiker.
Another reason for all this forest building is that Zimbali makes up a significant portion of the open space component of KwaDukuza Municipality within the larger iLembe District Municipality. Also the Zimbali Coastal Forest component is one of only three natural forest patches surviving between Durban and the Tugela River making this an important stepping-stone for migrating birds along the coast. You contribute to the biodiversity of the city by allowing dune bush, swamp forest, reed beds and mangroves (new Zimbali Lakes area on the Tongaat River Estuary) to survive and even thrive on your lands. How many Estates can boast of the sort of wildlife that you have at Zimbali? There are not that many safe sites in Durban for some of our rare and localised fauna and flora to breed.
All this because you have changed your policy of sweeping paths and you can still live in a nature reserve and play a great game of golf.
How much more virtuous can you get?!
Article written by : Geoff Nichols (ZEMA Horticultural Consultant)
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"[The garden] should be naturally clean like a forest glade, but not aggressively neat."
