As the annual movement of Garden Day celebrated its 10th anniversary on 12 October, we reflect on a decade of blossoming creativity, shifting lifestyles and the deepening connection between people and their green spaces. From cherished memories to the simple joy of getting hands dirty, Garden Day ambassadors share what gardening has meant to them over the years.
De Klerk Oelofse
Founder & Plantsman, Happy by Nature Nursery & Botanical Studio
De Klerk’s earliest garden memory is one that might leave most plant lovers gasping, but it was also the start of something extraordinary. ‘Our garden in Polokwane was a magical place,’ he says, ‘but I treated it more like a sports field than a sanctuary.’ His childhood antics ranged from baking mud cakes to re-enacting Wimbledon finals using unsuspecting agapanthus blooms as makeshift opponents. ‘I thought they were the perfect height for a forehand cross-court winner,’ he laughs.
It was his mother’s response, however, that shaped his deep love for gardening. ‘She never gardened for herself, she gardened to create a space for all of us, where imagination could roam,’ he reflects. ‘Even after I’d trampled her freshly planted beds, she wasn’t angry. She just roped me into replanting — in that, I learned both consequence and care.’
Today, De Klerk is the cofounder of Happy by Nature, an indigenous nursery and botanical studio tucked into Cape Town’s Kloof Nek Road. His own shady garden has transformed from fake lawn into a lush little haven, complete with a pond and a lemon tree. ‘It’s a small space,’ he says, ‘but it packs a punch.’ His signature plant? Blue sage (Salvia chamelaeagnea). ‘It reminds me of lockdown — the beginning of my plant journey — and my team started calling me Blue Sage,’ he smiles.
This Garden Day, he was on stage performing at the Stellenbosch Woordfees, but not without a quiet nod to nature: ‘I’ll steal a moment to visit the Stellenbosch University Botanical garden — it’s the perfect way to honour the day, even in between scenes.’
Lezanne Viviers
Fashion designer, Viviers Studio
‘My earliest memory of a garden is being enveloped by Mother Nature in Namaqualand,’ recalls Lezanne. ‘We spent many family holidays there.’ Her second memory is just as vivid: Her fourth birthday party in the Helderberg Nature Reserve, surrounded by mountain streams and fynbos, leaping across water with childhood abandon. These experiences planted the seeds of a lifelong connection to the natural world — and eventually to garden-making.
A pivotal influence in her gardening journey is her close friend, artist and landscape designer James Barry Slabbert. ‘He doesn't create gardens for just anyone,’ she laughs. ‘He said we’d first have to get to know each other.’ What followed was a deep friendship and mentorship that opened up the world of exotic, indigenous, and rare plants. ‘Being involved in the process of creating a garden taught me how profoundly it frames your sense of self, your well-being and your connection to the Earth.’
Two flowers hold special resonance for Lezanne: the sunflower and the lotus. ‘The sunflower’s vibrancy and its multitude of seeds reflect who I am on a soul level,’ she says. But it’s the lotus that touches her more deeply. ‘No mud, no lotus. It’s a symbol of evolution and beauty emerging from darkness.’ Three years after planting lotus bulbs in her garden and just days after discovering she was pregnant, a white lotus bloomed. ‘We had only planted pink. It was a moment of profound synchronicity for me,’ she reflects. ‘That flower felt like a message from the universe.’
Seth Shezi
SA MasterChef Winner & podcast host, ‘Breaking Eggs’
‘My grandmother’s garden in rural KwaZulu-Natal wasn’t designed, it was experienced,’ says Seth. ‘It was a sensory overgrowth. Elephant bush brushing against my skin, marigolds picked for Coca-Cola bottle vases… it all left an indelible mark.’ The early immersion in untamed beauty taught Seth a truth he still lives by, ‘Nature doesn’t need to be tamed to be beautiful, it just needs reverence.’
Born during Arbor Week, Seth jokes that every school he attended ‘planted a tree in my honour.’ From an early age, this poetic coincidence helped root a lasting connection to plants and the rituals that surround them. ‘I should revisit all those trees,’ he laughs. ‘I went to six schools — I have trees in different area codes.’
His love of plants deepened during his student days in Cape Town. ‘My first visit to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens as a first year student at UCT wasn’t for a concert, it was just to be in the gardens. That’s when I started keeping orchids at home. They last longer than cut flowers, and if you’re lucky, they’ll bloom again.’ Today, between Cape Town and London, Seth tends a flourishing potted garden and experiments with herbs although he admits chives are his elusive Achilles’ heel. ‘They refuse to thrive no matter how lovingly I beg them,’ he laughs.
For Garden Day, Seth celebrated barefoot, a flower behind each ear and friends at the table. ‘A garden lunch with good conversation, sunlight and song,’ he says. ‘In a world that feels increasingly disconnected, that kind of communion with nature feels more essential than ever.’
Bertus Basson
Chef & Restaurateur
For the acclaimed chef, the garden is an extension of the kitchen — and of the heart. ‘I’m definitely more of a veggie grower,’ Bertus says. ‘If you plant something, you should use it, whether for beauty or to eat. But I prefer to eat,’ he laughs. Still, flowers hold a tender place in his life, and the peony (his wife’s favourite bloom) carries deep personal meaning. ‘I have three peony tattoos on my left arm — one for my wife, one for my son, and one for my daughter.’
Basson’s home garden is anything but traditional. ‘It’s a smarty box — colourful and a bit all over the place,’ he jokes. The front is planted with purposeful fynbos, but the real action happens out back, where vegetables and fruit trees take centre stage. ‘We’ve recently shifted from planting directly in the ground to using raised beds made from old fruit bins. It helps us control the yield — and the pig can’t get in!’
As a chef rooted in sustainability, Bertus swears by practical garden hacks: Charcoal ash from the restaurant fires is repurposed into the garden beds, while chicken hay becomes nutrient-rich mulch. ‘It all goes back into the soil,’ he says. ‘That’s the cycle.’ This Garden Day, Bertus kept things grounded and real. ‘I’ll probably be in the garden,’ he says. ‘Hands in the soil, picking something to throw on the fire. Maybe with a cold drink in hand and my family nearby. That’s the perfect celebration to me.’
Nzwi Dyirakumunda
Founder & Flower Farmer, AkaNaka Blooms
A love of gardens is seeded in the rich, humble soil of Nzwi’s childhood. ‘My mother has always been a garden girl,’ she says. ‘From about the age of five, I’d watch her with her hands in the soil, coaxing marigolds, petunias and zinnias into bloom.’ Among vegetables, houseplants and hanging baskets, a quiet reverence for nature began to take root. ‘It wasn’t a fancy garden. But it was alive. And that life found a home in me.’ What began as a tomato-growing experiment in 2001, evolved into a full blown calling. ‘Years later, boxed planters on my townhouse patio brought it all back,’
Nzwi recalls. Today, she’s the founder of Akanaka Blooms, a seasonal cut flower farm on a four-hectare plot that’s slowly coming into its own. ‘It’s not all under production yet, but it’s thriving and growing,’ she says. ‘And so am I.’ Her biggest inspiration? ‘My mum,’ she says without hesitation. ‘She grows vegetables for markets with unwavering determination. Her resilience gave me the courage to take this leap.’ She adds that flower farming is more than just a business, it’s a journey toward healing. ‘It’s become a way to find myself, to mend the quiet, unseen hurts.’
This Garden Day, Nzwi is embraced simplicity. ‘We’ve just relocated the farm and things are still finding their rhythm,’ she says. ‘So I’m keeping it quiet: a garden picnic at home, cold drinks, sweet pastries and the simple joy of being present. That, to me, is more than enough
Tina Maritz
Co-founder & Chef, Kruijd
A passion that began in the kitchen found its way into the soil and with satisfying results. ‘My love of cooking inspired my love of gardening,’ Tina reflects. ‘There’s nothing quite like picking a tomato in midsummer, perfectly ripened after weeks of attentive watching.’
Located at Kruijd, her barefoot-luxury guestfarm retreat, the vegetable garden alongside an ancient oak tree serves as both muse and sanctuary. ‘The soil has been left untouched for years and now yields the most beautiful vegetables and herbs I’ve ever grown,’ she says, marvelling at how the space has evolved — and how it continually informs their seasonal menu.
Imperfection, she believes, is part of the garden’s charm. ‘My produce isn’t flawless,’ she says, ‘but it’s grown with love, care and a lot of hopeful anticipation.’ It’s these imperfect gifts that feed the foundation of her cooking philosophy. Her most trusted gardening tool? Compost. ‘Making your own compost is deeply rewarding,’ she emphasises. ‘You feed the soil you harvest from and it feeds you in turn. That cycle is everything.’
This Garden Day, she planned a small celebration tending the beds — notebook in hand, inspired by nature’s rhythms and ready to translate them back into kitchen stories under the canopy of her oak tree.
Shruthi Nair
Plant Parent & Soil Enthusiast
For Shruti, the garden has always been more than a space. Rather, it’s a grounding force, a connection to heritage, memory and the earth. ‘I was born in Jaipur, India, and my earliest garden memory is of our courtyard — an outdoor space both wild and deeply rooted in domestic life,’ she says. Moving from Johannesburg to Cape Town, Shruti has traded apartment plants for a rambling coastal garden. ‘Our garden is a chaotic delight,’ she says. ‘I don’t overthink it, I let it be as wild as it needs to be.’ Richer soil, two humble veggie patches and a firepit form the heart of her outdoor world. ‘My husband and I compost all our biodegradable waste — it’s a quiet ritual that regenerates our garden in its own time.’
Her love for gardening was inherited. ‘My mother is a sustainability leader and her father was a rice farmer in Kerala. We were taught early that waste belongs in the earth, not in the bin,’ she says. One plant in particular brings her right back to her roots: malli poo jasmine (Jasminum sambac). ‘Worn in the plaits of South Indian women, sold at bus stops, railway stations…its scent is intoxicating and instantly transports me home.’
While she admits the heartbreak of seedling failures, Shruti finds joy in the full-circle nature of growing food. ‘There’s nothing quite like harvesting herbs or veggies you’ve nurtured from seed.’
This Garden Day, her celebration was simple: ‘If the weather holds, we’ll braai at the firepit. Maybe we’ll walk down to the beach. Honestly, Garden Day is just the perfect reminder to tend to what you have, however small or imperfect. That’s the joy.
Siyabonga Ndlangamandla
Co-founder of Makers Valley Farm, Johannesburg
For Siyabonga the garden has always been tied to memory and legacy. ‘I was in first grade, running through sugarcane and maize fields with my grandad in KwaZulu-Natal,’ he recalls. ‘That was my first real garden — the wild kind.’ Sweet potatoes, a breakfast staple from his childhood years, still hold a special place in Siyabonga’s heart. But it was more than food that sowed the seeds of his gardening journey. ‘My grandad was a botanist,’ he explains. ‘He introduced me to the healing power of plants and the connection between growing and wellness.’
Today, Siyabonga is an urban farmer at the innovative Victoria Yards in Johannesburg, and a co-founder of Makers Valley Farm — a vibrant food security project serving the local community. ‘We’ve been transitioning from hydroponics to organic methods,’ he says. ‘We’re experimenting with raised beds and other sustainable techniques.’
While Joburg’s shifting climate makes gardening increasingly unpredictable, Siyabonga remains grounded in nature and its rhythms — even when they defy expectation. ‘Joburg’s weather doesn’t follow rules anymore,’ he says. ‘Global warming has changed everything, including planting patterns.’ A passionate veggie grower, Siyabonga sees his work as part of a larger cause. ‘I love knowing I’m contributing to food security and to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals — especially Zero Hunger.’
This Garden Day, he celebrated with a veggie braai among friends. ‘We’ll share drinks, swap gardening stories and talk about seasonal vegetables — maybe even try something new, like artichokes,’ he says. ‘It’s about honouring the land, the community and the joy of growing.’
Garden Day was on Sunday, 12 Ooctober 2025.
Follow @gardendaysa on social media or visit gardenday.co.za for more information
Credits
Text by Heidi Bertish
Images: Supplied, Angie Batiss, Olivia Kensley, Merwelene van der Merwe, Alistair Russell, Waldo Swiegers, Estvan Vermeulen
