Meet our 2023 Friends of Garden Day
Garden Day is a chance for South Africans to down their tools and have a party in their garden to celebrate our gardens and green spaces and the benefits they hold for our mental and physical well-being.
Each year different Friends of Garden Day come on board to celebrate the day in their own special way, while encouraging others to do the same. Here, we introduce you to this year’s Friends who will be popping on their flower crowns on Sunday 15 October and helping to get the party started!
Zola Nene
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Zola is an award-winning author, chef and TV personality known for her time as a SA Master Chef judge and cooking show host. The kitchen and plate are her happy place, but when life is moving at lightning speed she turns to her garden to slow down the fast-paced nature of her day jobs.
“Gardening is a form of self-love. I take my time when planting or watering the garden. It is a peaceful and quiet time with my thoughts.” She considers her fingers a little less green than most gardeners but perseveres through her trials and fails because that is where she finds peace and happiness. “My advice to fellow amateur gardeners like myself is to just keep trying. Yes, you’ll lose some plants along the way, but some will survive and the fun of gardening is in the actual act of gardening itself. Don’t focus too much on what goes wrong.”
For Garden Day, she plans to braai with her loved ones and watch her nephews play outdoors.
Angel Campey
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Gardening keeps radio host and stand-up comedian Angel grounded and helps her gain clarity. For her, the thrill is in nurturing a vulnerable tiny seed and then reaping the benefits. She has many fond memories of gardening with her mother.
“I remember gardening until the sun has set, and then, just as I was about to go to bed, I leaned out the window to look at the pansies I planted. I felt so much happiness that they were now going to grow big and beautiful, thanks to me.” Angel does her bit for the community too. She scatters all her spare wildflower seeds on sidewalks in the hope that they will grow and beautify the area. Angel also loves encouraging her nieces by showing them the grown flowers that were once tiny seeds they had planted.
Marciel Hopkins
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Marciel is an international model and current presenter of the popular Afrikaans match-making TV show Boer Soek ’n Vrou. Growing up on a farm in the Western Cape, Marciel developed a strong appreciation for the outdoors. “Gardening enriched my life because I spent most of my childhood climbing trees and playing outside in nature on our family farm. My childhood was filled with lunches outside in the garden.”
For her, gardening and taking care of her house plants is the cheapest form of therapy. “When you’re feeling down, you can just get your fingers in the ground. It is an instant feel-good exercise.” This year’s Garden Day, Marciel looks forward to hosting her neighbours on her patio surrounded by the plants she lovingly takes care of.
Hannes and Tina Maritz
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Hannes and his wife, Tina, are bespoke wedding and event planners based in Wellington in the Western Cape, where they’ve converted a century-old dairy barn into a stylish farm-style home. As a family, gardening and growing their own produce is a big part of their daily lives.
“Gardening has enriched our family life as it helps to show our kids devotion and how to care for something and watch it grow. It teaches patience and respect for nature, and we can see how our kids value produce more if it comes from our garden,” says Hannes. His family has extended their love for gardening and the environment to local communities, where they help them grow vegetables and herbs, make their own compost, and sell their produce.
On Garden Day, they plan on picking fresh herbs and vegetables from their garden and enjoying a picnic with the kids.
Fatima Mabulu
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Tech analyst and long-distance runner Fatima first drew closer to her lifelong passion for plants when South Africa went into lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. With uncertainty and fear overwhelming families and homes, Fatima’s plants became a renewed place of solace and refuge amidst the chaos. As her plant collection grew, she started sharing her plant care processes and routines on social media and soon developed a devoted following. Today she helps corporate and private clients green their spaces through her business Nurtured Spaces.
On Garden Day this year, Fatima plans to run the Cape Town Marathon. Afterwards, she'll host a high tea in her garden where she grows vegetables and herbs and takes care of a mini earthworm farm as a way of giving back to nature through fertilisation and soil restoration.
Ayabonga Gope
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Ayabonga is a private chef who thrills the palates of his guests across the world. As a chef, he loves picking and collecting fresh produce to use in his dishes. Ayabonga realised the importance of produce at a young age.
“Growing up, our neighbour owned a farm and I would go with him whenever he went to pick some produce. Even though no one worked in his household, there was still food on the table every day – proper fresh produce that came from his garden. That day I realised that we have everything we need to survive, we just need to fix our mindset,” he says. Inspired by this, Ayabonga helped to set up a vegetable garden in his community. Through this garden, they supply fresh produce to top restaurants and old age homes in the Western Cape, while creating jobs and feeding the community.
Rupert Koopman
Photo: Adel Ferreira
Rupert is an award-winning South African botanist and conservation consultant. He is passionate about protecting the country’s flora, especially in the fynbos biome, and raising awareness and appreciation for our botanical wealth.
Through his focus on the conservation of fynbos, Rupert ensures that there is enough plants to keep domestic gardens lush and generously populated. At a community level, he is currently helping the Welgemoed City Improvement District to buffer the local and critically endangered vegetation type, Swartland Shale Renosterveld, by establishing green corridors and indigenous plantings in open spaces.
His advice to beginner gardeners is to spend time and value watching things grow. “And don't be intimidated by botanical names,” he says. As a Garden Day ambassador Rupert plans to spend the day in the northern suburbs of Cape Town, inspecting remnants of renosterveld fynbos
Celebrate with us!
This year Garden Day will be celebrated on Sunday 15 October 2023. Get Garden Day ready by visiting our blog and social media pages for food, decor and party inspiration.
If you'd like to attend an event, enter a competition or bag a promo, visit our Events page to see what our Garden Day SA supporters are doing to celebrate.
Share your celebrations with us @gardendaysa and tagging #GardenDaySA.