Jungle Nurseries: Q&A with Michael Mansvelt

1. Is there a part of your garden you’ve changed, refreshed or added since the last time you were in the festival?

Yes. The entire property continues to evolve, but this year a new development is the Jungle Garden Discovery Trail.

When I bought the property in January 2020, there wasn’t a plant left on the nearly two-acre site. Around 80 percent of it was gravel, fencing and shade cloth. During the first year, we planted more than 2,000 palms, subtropical, deciduous and native plants.

Six years later, the trees are taller, the planting layers are filling in and the property is developing into the lush, living landscape I originally imagined.

2. Where in the garden—and what have you done?

The Discovery Trail connects five distinct spaces: the Border Garden, Woodland Garden, Green Garden, Office Garden and greenhouse.

We’ve begun mapping each area and recording the plants growing within it, including their botanical and common names, growing characteristics and availability from the nursery.

The greenhouse is the working heart of Jungle. It contains heated growing beds where we propagate plants and provides the protected environment needed for our tropical collection. We’re even growing bananas, mangoes and pineapples there.

Each garden room demonstrates what grows well in its particular conditions and how different plants look when grouped, layered and allowed to mature together.

Rather than viewing plants individually on a nursery bench, visitors can see their eventual scale, form, texture and relationship with the plants around them. A selection of the same plants and varieties featured throughout the Discovery Trail will be available to purchase during the Festival.

We want people to come and explore Jungle, see how plants grow and work together in an established landscape, and then choose plants to take home and create their own piece of paradise.

3. Why did you make this change?

I wanted to make the knowledge held within the garden more accessible.

Jungle is more than a nursery. It’s a living environment where we grow and trial plants, observe how they perform over time and test the landscape design ideas I’ve developed throughout my career.

The Discovery Trail allows visitors to experience the garden differently, to understand why particular plants work, how they respond to different conditions and how thoughtful combinations can transform a space.

4. How important is it that you keep your garden refreshed?

A garden is never static. It responds to the seasons, weather, growing conditions and the way plants mature alongside one another.

Keeping it refreshed isn’t about constantly starting again. It’s about observing, editing, moving and introducing plants when needed while allowing the garden’s character to deepen over time.

The real pleasure comes from watching those ideas mature and seeing how the garden changes from one season to the next.

5. What does your garden mean to you?

When I first bought the property, it was a practical business decision rather than an emotional one, and I arrived with an enormous case of buyer’s remorse.

Over time, transforming it from a gravel-covered garden centre into an oasis has completely changed my relationship with the property. It has become my home, my workplace and a place where my design thinking, plant knowledge and love of nature come together.

The garden gives me somewhere to experiment, learn and experience those small daily interactions with nature that mean so much. Through the Discovery Trail, it also becomes something I can share, a place where people can explore, discover something new and take practical knowledge and inspiration back into their own gardens.

Explore Jungle Nurseries this festival:  https://www.facebook.com/share/1DqNutGBzy/