“Since I can remember, I have loved working with plants and flowers and getting my hands dirty!
Being in an overall is better than getting dressed up. I’m very hands-on, having finished school in 1978, I went straight into teaching training at the University of Witwatersrand. I qualified as a nursing sister and midwife in 1984. Having my eyes opened to life, and death, changed me. I decided there and then that I wanted to go back to my roots!
In 1986 I entered the JHB horticultural competition, I came 3rd. The following year I came first, I felt like I had won the Lotto!
My neighbour, Mrs Witt and her family came behind me and pushed me forward into my new career, unbeknown to me. I thought I would be doing this for the next year, it turned out to be 20!
Over that time, I grew as a person, I grew my team and my experience and skills were fine-tuned. At this point in time, my business was called “Sunsational Gardens”.
I’m a self-taught landscaper, I believe I have a God-given gift. I was born to create and my medium is the Garden (I also paint).
Then, in 2007 my husband and I moved to KZN, to Rosetta where we bought a 5 Star Guest House, Mountain View Country House. We lived there until 2014.
During this time, we lost our little girl, Kelli Ann Sacke to a brain tumor in 2010 and I lost my desire to live. I never knew a human being could be so sad. It was then that I drew closer to God. Little did I know that He was about to change my life.
Fast-forward to 2014. My new neighbour in Howick, Carien asked me to help her in her garden, after seeing my memorial garden for Kelli. I ignored her request. The very next day she asked my why I hadn’t started her garden.
God picked me up by my bootstraps and chucked me into that garden with no staff, no equipment, no materials, a zulu man by the name of Sipho who could not speak English was my new gardener for the day.
The story goes… I needed more Zulu power and lots of it! I put out a message on our chat group: Coke and Cake at this address. We moved mountains that day! God was pulling my story together. The rest is history and the word began to spread slowly.
Enter Teddy: a skinny, shy, very broken young man. As broken as I was. 2 broken people started working together and sharing their sadness and pain. Little did we know that God was using His Earth to heal our wounds. We started to form a great team with lots of good stories to tell, and lots of blood, sweat and tears!
Today, Carol Sacke Landscaping is a 12 member happy team with projects far and wide, from Cape Town to Clocolan and beyond!
We are here to serve and change your life. :-)”
Carol Sacke is an award-winning landscape artist. Currently located in KZN, Carol has travelled around the World transforming landscapes into works of art. Carol works on the principle of drawing out the natural character of her landscapes and only works on projects she believes in.
