Kirstenbosch Orientation

Orientation at Kirstenbosch encompassed all of week one, starting Monday morning. After a long night of tossing and turning, I was awoken by a knock on my front door at 7:30AM. The scholar, Melissa, was ready to get me started at Kirstenbosch. As we took the long, steep, tiresome walk up Camphor Avenue, she informed me about my schedule and Adam, the horticulturist who will be supervising my project here at Kirstenbosch.

The first couple of days was mostly getting acquainted with the garden, staff, and the other students, Megan and Jermaine, who will be spending six months at the garden. We visited the conservatory, plant production nursery, the glasshouses, Protea garden, Erica garden, Fynbos garden, Peninsula/statue garden, Cycad collection, Useful garden, Garden of Extinction, Fragrance garden, Pelargonium garden, Buchus garden, Annuals garden, Mathew’s Rockery, and the new Centenary Tree Canopy Walk (Boomslang) which opened up two months ago. The surrounding estate is also owned and managed by Kirstenbosch’s conservation team, so we also took a hike along mountainside.

Melissa showed us the student offices where we can research information and access emails. Every day we start at 7:30AM, Tea-Time at 10:00AM, Lunch at 1:00PM, and go home at 4:30PM. During the week, we will work in our assigned gardens from Mon-Wed, work with a different supervisor on Thursday, and Friday is collecting for the Specimen stand/Kiosk. Every Wednesday there is a horticulture related talk presented by the Botanical Society (BOTSOC) and every Thursday there is an activity presented by the Research Center.

In a nutshell, my first week was seeing a lot of new people, plants, and places. In later posts, I will talk in detail about some of the activities I took part in.