News

An autumn goodbye - a fresh start in spring

Dear Communitree members and friends, I would like to update you on the changes happening within Communitree, bringing some exciting new possibilities to you and Communitree as a whole. Most of you a

Connecting Cape Town’s Green Spaces: Introducing the Fynbos Stepping-Stone Corridor Strategy

Community-led fynbos rehabilitation in Cape Town is gaining traction. In most residential areas there are members of the public involved in greening private gardens and public spaces. In addition, var

Spring propagation workshop: the secret life of seeds

Communitree is happy to announce to its volunteers and network that fynbos conservation horticulturist Julia September will be teaching a very interesting spring propagation workshop: the secret life

Second Fynbos restoration course for beginners launched

This second course will take place in Salt River, and it is open (and free!) to people residing in Salt River, Woodstock, and Athlone. The course outline is as follows: Through this practical course

Communitree launches a Fynbos restoration course for beginners

UPDATE (Apr 30): we are fully booked for our regular spots and only have place available for people residing in one of our priority areas: Salt River, Athlone, Woodstock. Our Thursday course is fully

Book chapter: Urban Infrastructure: Reflections for 2100

Communitree Co-founders Frances Taylor and Paul Hoekman contributed a chapter to the recently published book, Urban Infrastructure: Reflections for 2100. In this chapter, they envision The Untraceable

Garden of the Month - Huis Luckoff

Lanham founded FROG in 2014 to ‘’give people who had retired and who had the odd hour to go and garden, pick up litter and just beautify the space’’. She rallied a group of ent

Cape Clawless Otter spotted along the Liesbeek river!

On our way to do a morning bird monitoring session at our N2 patch, we spotted a Cape Clawless Otter (Aonyx capensis) along the Liesbeek river in Mowbray. What a great sighting! It is amazing how thes

Communications Internship opening at Communitree

This internship position is all about communications: from social media to e-mail, and from coordinating volunteers to keeping our partners up-to-date. We are looking for someone who is experienced us

End-of-year get-together at Communitree's fynbos gardens

We would like to celebrate the end of the year with the volunteers, partners, local champions, growers, and other stakeholders who have made this year a great success. At three of our sites we will be

Communitree seeks photographer or videographer volunteer

At Communitree we are constantly busy growing and planting fynbos, cleaning and maintaining public spaces, and engaging in similar work that aims to improve urban biodiversity. However, we are looking

Changes at the project around the Rondebosch Common

Since early 2018, Communitree has been working with the Friends of the Rondebosch Common, in an effort to bring back indigenous vegetation to spaces directly surrounding this important reserve. Initia

Internship positions at Communitree for 2019

Communitree is looking for interns! Are you interested in conservation, in urban greening, and in connecting people with nature? Then read more about the openings that we have available! Position 1:

Rondebosch Common Spring Walks 2018

A group of Friends of the Rondebosch Common members take the public on a guided walk through the Common every Spring to showcase the beautiful flowers on the Common. We saw several Oxalis flowers, bu

First sunbird sighting in one of our gardens

Happy women's day! And happy SUNBIRD day too! I am so pleased to announce that today we saw our first sunbird visitors to one of our gardens - Ryan Road Park. The double-collared sunbird pair

Communitree featured in the media!

This past week we were featured in two newspapers- The People's Post and the Tatler, two local newspapers appealing to Cape Town's residents. We were furthermore featured on Radio786. Two journalists

Mandela Week 2018

After weeks of preparation, planning and marketing we presented a week of gardening activities in honour of Mandela Day. Two gardening activities were hosted per day from Monday through Saturday where

Mass Sour Fig Planting complete

We have succesfully completed our mass Sour Fig Planting Campaign planting out the 900 individual Sour Fig (Carpobrotus Edulis) plants donated by the Friends of the Liesbeek and that was harvested alo

Popular Education Network Conference 2018

Popular education is a theory and practice of education directed towards promoting social change rather than social stability. It is rooted in the real interests of people committed to learning and ac

New Collaboration: Communitree and Bonteheuwel Walking Ladies

Bonteheuwel Walking Ladies, an organised group of women from Bonteheuwel who come together and organise activities and events, warmly received Communitree this week in Bonteheuwel. Bonteheuwel, locate

Mass sour fig planting campaign

Last week, the Friends of the Liesbeek worked on clearing a path next to the river, just off the N2, where large fields of sour fig (carpobrotus edulis) had grown into a thick mat. This indigenous pla

Communitree 2018 winter programme released

Our winter programme for 2018 has various recurring events, in addition to ad-hoc events. The events focus on our priority sites, located roughly between Mowbray and Newlands, but we also have other e

Cobra lilly planting at our priority sites

Last year we collected a couple hundred cobra lilly bulbs from various locations. These bulbs, Chasmanthe floribunda, turn into a beautiful lilly with a spectacular flower over the winter period. They

Waterless home nurseries - start yours now!

Cape Town is facing a severe drought. Residents in the city face water restrictions, and it becomes increasingly difficult to use water for irrigation. In response to this, Communitree is rolling out

Water tank set up at Thandokhulu High

Peter Muller, a Mowbray resident, donated a water tank to Communitree, to be used at Thandokhulu High in Mowbray. The water tank is in need of some repair, but we will be working on this in the coming

Help save plants from the Rondebosch Common!

Earlier today, February 1st, all vegetation was accidentally removed from this traffic circle, at the southern side of the Rondebosch Common. This traffic circle was carefully planted with indigenous

The highlights of 2017

Thanks to the many home nursery volunteers, our plant stock has grown considerably. At the moment we have 2713 plants in home nurseries and 6458 seeds in our seed banks. Our seed bank numbers were gen

To look forward to in 2018

There are a number of projects in the pipeline that will grow and strengthen the Communitree community. We are not a charity. We believe people can do greening themselves, with help and advice from fr

Volunteer opportunities for 2018

Well, now is the time to step forward and offer your time, however small or big: Marketing, recruitment and communications: help write the newsletter and articles for local newspapers, manage social

Take 6 min to give us feedback on Communitree 2017

We want to know what you think. Please click here and answer 3 simple questions about your experience of Communitree 2017.

Frankenflora - the dangers of planting indigenous plants from far away

The result of mixing the local plants of Cape Town with closely related cousins from elsewhere has been dubbed ‘Frankenflora’. An example, is the mixing of Agapanthus from KwaZulu-Natal wi

Ryan Road Park, Rosebank

City Park, Metrorail, Rustenberg Girls High, local greening stalwarts and determined neighbours all helped us get the park to to welcoming state it is in today. Over a few months we pulled out large p

Sans Souci Bridge Patch, Newlands

There were already some nice plants here including Wild Dagga, beds of Sour Fig, and ferns. However, at the same time there was a LOT of broken glass lying around. This used to be a dumping ground for

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