Tim Steyn Landscaping is Matkovich & Hayes’ first choice partner when it comes to landscaping the out-of-play areas of our courses. We chatted to him to find out how he goes about his business.

Q - How did you get started in landscaping and begin with Peter and Matkovich - Hayes?

My family has been involved in landscaping for over 20 years and I studied a BSC Forestry. My first job with the company was landscaping the out-of-play areas and clubhouse surrounds at Zebula Country Club. Thereafter I was involved at Elements Private Golf Reserve and at the same time I was consulted to Silver Lakes, Woodhill and Zwartkops as they all wanted advice on planting indigenous trees and veld grasses. Following that, I was fully involved at Simbithi Country Club, Cotswold Downs Golf Course and, more recently, Ebotse Golf - Country Estate which opened in 2008.

Q - How does the process work?

My approach to golf course landscaping is that it should be a stylised rehabilitation of the out of play areas. In other words the process of re-planting these areas should be handled with a strong sense of design and creativity and not a straightforward rehabilitation exercise. What you can achieve is very much budget driven and must fit into the greater environmental plan. Fortunately for me, Peter (Matkovich) has always had a huge respect for the environment.

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Before any earth is broken I discuss a plan with Peter and Louis van der Walt (assistant designer) of what we want to achieve with the available budget. This is followed by a search and rescue effort to find and protect significant indigenous flora on site. Sometimes we remove the flora and keep it in a nursery to replant later. Large trees are included in this process and are either stored in a temporary nursery or moved out of the path of construction. Thereafter we use contract growers and nurseries to propagate and supply the required plant material. This is often a very challenging process as these plants need time to grow and a significant amount of forethought and planning is necessary. We almost always get local contractors and labour teams to do the installation work, most of which occurs during the last 6 months of course construction.

The vast majority of what we do is veldgrass and wetland rehabilitation. Most landscapers do this by sowing grass seed that has been specifically developed for agricultural purposes in labs far from the site location sometimes overseas. We prefer to use the actual grass from the area and to get this right we have been working successfully with a number of experts, namely Dr Ed Granger (Ex-UKZN) and Mike Kruger (Top Crop Nursery) to cultivate the local grass species. They are pioneers of veld grass/plug technology and it is working very well for us.

Q - What sort of budgets are involved?

A small budget to do the minimum landscaping around a new golf course is between R1 - R2 million. For an extensive landscaping job the budget can go up to, and over, R5 million.

In most cases today golf courses are built on ex farmland that has been damaged or disturbed. We are simply trying to take it back to what it was before but adding an element of style or design. There is no such thing as an ‘instant garden' and, on most courses, the landscaping needs at least three to five years to “knit” and even longer to mature. After all it has taken Mother Nature hundreds of years to create what we are trying to recreate. Our ultimate goal is to give the impression that nothing has been done by human hand - that is the art of my landscaping!