Meet A Gardener for the 21st century. Dawid’s work is inspired by a rare sensitivity to plants and the landscape, which has made him one of South Africa’s most innovative gardeners. Equipped with a thorough grounding in engineering and horticulture as well as garden design, he has over 20 working years also acquired a profound understanding of plant systems, plant families and ecology and a unique experience of naturalistic gardening in a variety of environments and climates.
Dawid’s Gardening Career began in Cape Town, where he worked first at Kirstenbosch and then for the Parks Department as Principal Horticulturist at Newlands Nursery. He then moved to Kimberley, where he ran his own nursery and landscape design company and then to Johannesburg.
From 2001 to 2011, as head gardener at Brenthurst, Dawid had the distinction of carrying out one of the most important and trendsetting garden projects in South Africa, at the instigation of Strilli Oppenheimer: the implementation of
biodynamic principles and management throughout this historic 16 hectare garden, where he still serves as a consultant.
The Brenthurst Project involved not only the elimination of all chemical treatments and the retraining of staff but also a radical change to a more natural planting style, with the use of many indigenous and endemic plants in a series of diverse gardens that are also humming ecosystems of plants, birds and insects. These include pioneering plantings of South African indigenous and endemic grasses, a butterfly garden, a labyrinth and a highveld wetland, which are all testimony to the range of his design ability and to his understanding of natural environments.
Dawid Has Travelled Widely, undertaking study trips to gardens in Europe, China and Japan. Dawid also assisted a team of master gardeners from Kyoto in the construction of an authentic Japanese garden at Brenthurst, experience which added a new dimension to his design philosophy.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Designed by BR 0823402385