Pinetown’s Natalie Rowle shares her passion for nature

IN any community, the quirky and colourful characters add vibrancy and dynamic energy that enriches it.

These delightfully offbeat folk live life a tad unconventionally and go where their curiosity and imagination take them.

One such character is Natalie Rowles from Ashley in Pinetown.

An avid nature lover and gardener, lockdown has not phased Natalie who has been immersed in many pursuits including taking impressive photographs of the insects in her garden then sending them to Michigan, United States to be identified and catalogued.

ALSO READ: Natalie Rowle’s cow-pea pancake recipe 

When Natalie shared her insect photos with the Highway Mail, as well as her gardening tips, recipes and how, undaunted about the lack of bees, she successfully hand-pollinated her butternuts, I knew we had a colourful character to interview.

“I am now playing the role of the Love Goddess in the Pumpkin Patch!”

That Natalie’s great grandmother – to the fifth generation – was the famed Catharina Ras, the first female farmer in South Africa during Simon van der Stel’s time was hardly a huge surprise.

“She was well known for her feisty personality and farming skills,”‘ said Natalie.

“I always believed my gardening skills came from my ancestors. Catharina’s farm, Steenberg, is now the well known Steenberg Hotel and Restaurant in Constantia, Cape Town. I hope to visit her old farm one day.”

Getting on with life

Natalie was born in Pretoria and did half her schooling there, and the rest in Durban.

“I went to so many schools, but the last school was Saamwerk High School in Sarnia/Rossburgh. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I finished school in Standard 7, went to work before the age of 16 during school holidays; and then worked for six months. Afterwards, I rejoined my school year half way, in Standard 8, and managed to pass and received a thick, cardboard type of certificate,” she said.

She returned to work for the Government for many years, during which time she managed to complete her matric as well as her Grade Level 6 in commerce.

“During my working years I was among others a trained telephonist, a private secretary and, being the only Afrikaans speaking person, was also asked to be the translator and translate all Afrikaans correspondence into English, then from English replies back into Afrikaans.”I completed various courses at various technical colleges in Durban and Pinetown and also travelled a couple of times to the UK, Wales, America, Switzerland and Germany.

ALSO READ: Grow versatile pigeon peas in your garden, Pinetown’s Natalie Rowles tell you how

When Natalie married, she left her work to start a family and be a full time mother to her daughter and son.

Hobbies and gardening

Her inherited love of the land and growing plants was ignited at the age of five when she became interested at school when, “our wonderful teacher taught us to germinate bush beans seeds in damp cotton wool.

“l also received 100, day-old chicks from a friendly farmer next door as a gift, which gave me the opportunity to supply eggs, meat and vegetables to my family. I also taught myself to apply shoe polish onto their faces and feet when they suffered any illnesses as well as placing freshly cut aloe leaves in their fresh drinking water bowls.

“This taught me different skills as I had to solve any problem with a resource close on hand, which helped me later in life as an adult,” said Natalie.

I have too many hobbies and find little time for all of them now, but received a licence to operate a Ham Radio a few years back after doing a course, cooking and normal gardening, photography, sewing, knitting, reading and researching on the Internet and YouTube.”

Natalie loves her beloved wild birds, even the woodpecker who, “after I mimicked its voice, came down from the fence and sat next to me and then jumped on top of my head! Then it bit me on my hand when I tried to remove it from my head.”

Accolades

“I am still an active voluntary Dream Keeper of Imagine Durban Department after many years helping them to solve some problems and trying my best to improve our environment as well as suggesting better living conditions for all. I had a ‘very small hand’ in greening Durban so far, and I am very proud Durban received the Greenest City in the World award recently too.”

ALSO READ: Krantzkloof reserve remains closed

Natalie has received a few accolades including, “the most important one to me, The “Mail & Guardian – Greening The Future Award” in 2011, for my private project “Free Trees To Schools” where I donated more than 3 000 saplings in plant bags ready to be planted in schools and public areas.

“I also received an award for Environmental Innovation from the Province of KZN (Department of Agriculture, Environmental Affairs and Rural Development) and was featured in the Book of Women.”

She received a Certificate of Exhibition from the Oncology on Canvas of my paintings from Eli Lilly & Company which went overseas and were displayed in the Royal College of Art, London on 3 December 2004.

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