July 2024

Estate Manager Article, July 2024

We are now well and truly in the grip of winter, and some of our trees have stubbornly clung to their yellowing leaves despite the blankets of frost that we see around the estate in the mornings! Homeowners looking for plants to brighten up their verges in the winter months can consider some of the following frost resistant plants that are favourites amongst gardeners: Bellis (English Daisies), Stocks (familiar to some residents from a certain Netflix period drama), Snapdragons and Sweetpeas (which bring not only colour but a delightfully sweet fragrance too!).

Winter is the high season for some of the regular estate maintenance and projects that usually require dry Highveld winters. The river project will see a bridge reinstated and desilting along the river in stages – our Environmental Director and Chief Operations Officer have been hard at work ensuring that all planned works meet the necessary regulatory approvals as we embark on this beautification project.

This is usually a great time to give your boundary walls or house exterior a lick of paint to ensure that they withstand the summer rains – please consult the architectural guidelines as you plan improvements and take note of procedures and deposits that apply to various upgrades and additions to homes.

By now, many residents will have sampled the new menu at The Gardens Bistro, and sneak peeks and early releases indicate plenty of tantalising options to enjoy. The Gardens Bistro also held a very successful Murder Mystery Dinner at the end of May and some exciting activities over June.

We celebrated Fourways Gardens’ 40th birthday with a Birthday Bash on the 1st of June and could not have asked for better weather to enjoy the funfair and the party at the Clubhouse lawns before the cold set in! Such a well-attended event was an impressive display of community spirit and showed that our estate, while the first in the country, is young at heart!

The HOA team is also hard at work preparing for novel events to appeal to our community even more – a tennis tournament and a cycle challenge, to name a few. July will also see Mandela Day being marked by charitable acts and collections across the country, and the Fourways Gardens community will be invited to participate in the collection for charitable causes to be held in July.

Our AGM is also approaching and will be held on Wednesday, 31 July 2024. We look forward to another engaging and productive AGM, where the Board of Directors and HOA team will outline the vision for the next year and propose projects to address some of the pressing issues we face, such as outdated and inadequate gatehouses.

Homeowners are urged to check that they receive emails from the WeConnectU system. This will be the primary means of distributing important documents and information to homeowners as we progress with technological advancements to improve the HOA workflow. Homeowners not receiving emails from WeConnectU are to contact the HOA Office to ensure your details are correct.

As alluded to in last month’s magazine, I have now enjoyed a year as the Estate Manager of Fourways Gardens and can truly say that it has been a purposeful year, where the groundwork for great things has been laid.

Our estate’s challenges have been overcome through the cooperation and support of the Board of Directors, the HOA team and the Fourways Gardens community. I have grown this year, as I know the HOA team has, and I am more convinced than ever that we have the right people for the job of ensuring that Fourways Gardens is an established, aspirational estate with security second to none and a community spirit that compels visitors to become part of this community.

Sincerely, Charlene Marlin