On Wednesday July 3, at 10am at the Strand Town Hall, the U3A Helderberg will adopt a very Eastern orientation, as speaker Margaret Abbott enlightens her audience on Japanese Gardens: in Japan and around the world.
The Japanese garden is a simple, minimalist natural setting designed to inspire reflection and meditation. They are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape.
They are perceived as tying into the connections between the land and the spiritual.
The art of garden making probably came to Japan from China or Korea as early as the 5th century CE, and thereafter underwent various modifications across the various dynasties and ages.
In modern Japanese gardens, evergreens are popular, with simplicity, restraint (a charm the Japanese garden maker tries to emphasise), and consistency being sought before gaiety, showiness, or seasonal variation.
Trees and plants are distributed according to their natural origin and growth habits, and beauty is so concealed that it may be discovered individually.
Margaret Abbott will explore the history, principles, elements and mystery behind the apparently simple but evocative designs of Japanese gardens, which, she says, are a total manipulation of nature.
She will discuss the important elements of water, rocks, gravel, tea houses, bridges and trees.
Her talk will be illustrated with examples from special gardens such as the Mytoi Garden on Martha’s Vineyard, the Japanese Tea Garden of San Francisco and the Adachi Museum of Art Garden, the most famous and awarded garden in Japan.
Margaret Abbott and her husband Geoff retired to Kommetjie in 2015 after 26 years in the UK.
Originally from New Hampshire USA, she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. In Atlanta, Georgia, she was Executive Director of the Coca-Cola Foundation responsible for the company’s philanthropy, and then in the UK she was Director of Development of the American School in London.
In Britain she started her own educational fundraising consulting practice – ASK Associates – focusing on the independent school sector and working with many fee-paying schools in the UK and Europe for 20 years.
In 2016, she joined the International Women’s Club of Cape Town and began her garden adventures as the Garden Group leader by organising visits to over 50 private and public gardens in the Cape.
During lockdown, she shared her love of gardens and international travel with IWC members on Zoom so they could see and enjoy beautiful gardens from around the world.
This became a new career of presenting lectures to garden clubs and organisations in South Africa, the UK and the USA.
She lectured at the UCT Summer School in 2022 and 2023, and has happily retired (again) to Helderberg Village in Somerset West, where she has planted an enormous garden.
All fees earned go to a small elementary school she and her husband helped to start for the children of undocumented workers in the township of Masiphumelele near Kommetjie.
This address is not necessarily for gardeners only, but for all who enjoy travel, the arts, history, or just simply wish to expand their horizons.
Members enter free ; visitors pay R20 at the door.
For more informaiton, call Denise Fourie at 072 211 1173.
* References above include those from Encyclopaedia Britannica: Japanese garden, and Wikipedia.