Blooming good places to visit this Garden Day
Garden Day is on Sunday October 17 and the public has a variety of gardens and activities to choose from in the far south.
Sunday is the last day of the Noordhoek Open Gardens where several gardens will be open to the public.
Visitors can expect workshops and demonstrations on propagating clivias and pruning bonsais and they will be able to pick their own vegetables and enjoy some wine tasting and buy plants and garden accessories.
Tickets - R25 for a single entry and R125 for a day pass - are available at Noordhoek Tourism or on entry at any of the gardens. For more information, visit noordhoektourism.co.za or call 072 574 6608.
For those looking for a more tranquil setting away from the crowds, visit Spoon Street Park in Lakeside. Resident Margaret Moir started beautifying this public park a year ago.
According to her, it is one of the most used parks in the area and there is always someone sitting in the park chatting, children on the swings, birthday parties, and dog walkers.
Tree stumps and rocks have been used as a wind buffer and all plants are water-wise, hardy, and non-invasive. The dog owners have pitched in and commissioned an artist who is painting all the dogs who use the park on the community toilet wall.
“We have had an amazing response to this garden, and there are about 50 if not more neighbours, dog walkers, tree waterers, and weeders involved. Some have donated their time to do the hard landscaping like the steps, weeding, and clearing. This garden has created an amazing community spirit in Lakeside and we have an informal meeting every Friday evening,” she said.
Ms Moir said people now came to look at the garden. She’s had enquiries from those who want to do the same thing in their parks in Fish Hoek, Kirstenhof, and Lakeside.
The Muizenberg Community Garden, in Albertyn Road, between the Blue Ribbon spaza shop and the Telkom building, will be open from 11am to 3pm on Sunday.
Founding member Angela Mac Pherson said the garden was created in 2020 in response to the repercussions of Covid-19 and lockdown.
Ms Mac Pherson said the garden was so much more than just a food garden.
“Our community garden is a safe common space for people to meet, talk, discuss ideas on how to grow food, how to regenerate soil, how to live in communion with nature and how to live in a community with each other and to dream a new way forward.”
She said it was a natural resource for those without green spaces to spend time in and find a place of calm, to meet new people, and to have creative conversations.
The intention was to inspire the community to start producing their own food and to educate themselves about the challenges of food production, she said.
The garden had been entirely created by local unpaid volunteers and was run by them, she said.
Ms Mac Pherson said it has been producing a constant supply of greens, and all produce was donated to the Muizenberg Food Kitchen, a community project founded by Muizenberg Community Action Network (CAN) during lockdown.
Muizenberg Food Kitchen chef Angelina Chibge said it was a good feeling to be able to eat fresh, nutritious, organic produce grown with love, on a daily basis.
“It’s so inspiring,” she said.
Email livingcreatures@gmail.com for more information about the garden.
Kalk Bay will be celebrating Garden Day with a variety of activities such as picnics and poetry in the park, live music, simultaneous chess games by Lukhanyo Xhonti, and a talk about bees to mention a few. The full itinerary of events and a digital map can be seen on Instagram @gardendaykalkbay
