Discover how Greenpop, alongside our in-kind donors, partners, and dedicated volunteers transform urban spaces into thriving green oases through hands-on planting, community collaboration, and holistic restoration.

More Than Tree Planting – Holistic Restoration in Urban Spaces

While a big chunk of our restoration work happens all across Sub-Saharan Africa, closer to home, our Urban Greening (UG) team are busy as bees, cultivating gardens in the city. You might spot the Greenpop transporter, travelling through the Cape Flats stocked with compost, spades and plants ready for the garden; or catch our UG team running a garden day at one of our Green Zones. The action all begins at our beloved EcoHub and Nursery in the heart of Woodstock – our home base for all things Urban Greening.

Urban Greening  and Living Landscapes

While we’re all about tree planting, Urban Greening (UG) is so much more. The Living Landscapes project aims to enhance urban spaces by partnering with local organisations to create green spaces featuring: indigenous gardens, lawns, shade infrastructure, and community nurseries. Living Landscapes are living in the sense that they are teeming with thriving biodiversity, but are also living in the sense that they are designed to be lived in. These environments provide local communities with both aesthetic, natural beauty as well as utility, serving as ideal spaces for recreation, relaxation, sports and other various outdoor activities. 

With Living Landscapes, the goal is to create green urban environments, enhance urban biodiversity and environmental health, foster strength in our local communities, and grow the global community of environmental stewards. Since launching our Urban Greening efforts in 2010, we have planted 26,680 trees, created 12 Fynbos Gardens, with the help of 31,000 participants, trained 141 individuals in Food Gardening, and facilitated nearly 500 community Garden Days! The Living  Landscapes top 3 smart goals (of which there are 9) to reach by February 2026 include: organising 30 community planting days, Involving 250 community members in the design and greening of spaces and to engage 500 individuals from outside these immediate communities. 

All Made Possible By Our In-Kind Donors

As a non-profit organisation, Greenpop is only as strong as its supporters. Our donors fall into two categories: financial donors who keep our mission alive through funding our various projects, and In-kind donors who contribute their respective tangible resources like trees, soil, compost, and timber that provide us with the means to create these lush, urban gardens. Some of our donors don’t stop there – extending their favours to joining us in the garden from time to time and rolling up their sleeves. We call our facilitated greening days ‘Garden Days’, and on such days we gather up our donors, team, volunteers and beneficiaries to join in getting hands on at one of our various urban greening project sites. It’s all about utilising and embracing collective ACTION – to transform our local landscapes into accessible and inspiring green spaces that are an asset and a joy to those that use them.

Step-by-Step: Preparing for a Garden Day

1. Packing and Prep

Mountain Road Primary has been a key partner of ours since 2018, when we launched our Fynbos for the Future project, providing us with a much-needed nursery space. What once was a desolate part of their property contaminated by rubbish dumping, is now a vibrant eco-haven that we call home! The EcoHub is where it all begins, where plants are propagated, seeds are nurtured, the transporter is packed, and where we eagerly prep for a day in the garden.

2. Welcome & Icebreakers
As partners and volunteers arrive, we warm up with an interactive icebreaker – cue the tree trivia! While our Urban Greening projects utilise a variety of plant species, trees remain an essential component of our garden curation. Just Trees, one of our longest standing in-kind donors, has been with us since our very first Trees for Cape Town project in 2010. Today, they support our Living Landscapes project.

3. Planting Demo & Soil Prep
Before we get stuck in, we demonstrate proper planting techniques and explain why soil health is key. Reliance Compost, a partner since 2014, provides us with nutrient-rich compost to improve water retention and support plant growth. At past events like Eden Festival  and Reforest Fest, their compost quite literally fueled and fed all of our planting efforts! They have been assisting Greenpop with our previous Gardens For Good Project and are now contributing to our latest endeavor, Living Landscapes.

4. Hands-On Planting 
If the season and conditions are right, we commence with one of our favourite parts of the day’s proceedings – planting various indigenous Fynbos species from Shadowlands Nursery. These plants enhance biodiversity, increase pollination, and create resilient green urban spaces. Since 2022, Shadowlands Nursery has donated water-wise plants to our Urban Greening Programme and environmental school camps.

5. Fencing & Protection 
Young plants need protection! Using gum poles and latte fencing from The Pole Yard, we construct barriers  to shield our saplings. The further addition of wooden benches serves as a nice touch, giving people the means to take a moment and soak up the beauty of these green oases. The Pole Yard’s support hasn’t stopped here, they have also supported Greenpop by supplying materials for multiple of our other projects, including Reforest Fest. If you plan to join us at this year’s festival, be sure to keep an eye out for the wash stations.

7. Celebration & Closing Ceremony
Before we wrap up, we capture this wonderful shared experience with a group photo. With smiling faces, beaming with pride, each Garden Day’s efforts bring us all closer together, reinforcing the bonds we’ve formed and the impact made to green previously neglected urban spaces. Volunteers leave with dirty hands and full hearts, carrying new knowledge, community connections, and the pride of knowing they’ve made a tangible impact. Sending a Greenpop Salute!

A massive THANK YOU to our partners Mountain Road Primary, Just Trees, Shadowlands Nursery, Reliance Compost, The Pole Yard,and BOS for their unwavering support! Together, we’re growing a #Treevolution – one compost scoop, one plant, and one tree at a time. Garden Days aren’t just about regreening  spaces – it is about planting hope, resilience, and community. Thank you all for being part of this mission! Feeling the FOMO? Come plant with us!