Dear On The Verge Enthusiasts
29/01/2020: It is about a year since my last update newsletter. The last few months have been rather a blur for us, with the huge amount of work that spring brings with its abundance, trying to plant as much as possible before the rains ended, the crazy amount of work for the Open Gardens weekend and then of course the Christmas/ New Year madness that swooped upon us!
The windy dry summer days have shaken us out of this frenetic whirlwind however, with beds needing mulching, watering and constant tidying. You will be seeing our beloved trailer and water bowser along the road side, on Wednesdays, as we try to keep our trees and shrubs alive over the next few hot months before the autumn rains rescue us.
Last year was a huge year for us in many ways. The passing of my friend and On the Verge partner; Nissan was a great sadness to the community and the On the Verge family. His large “shoes” or shall I say Foot Prints, since he seldom wore shoes have been wonderfully filled by Andi and Joy, 2 special ladies with unlimited energy and enthusiasm resources. I am so pleased that Nisan met with them at our Verge Enthusiasts tea that we held at the end of 2018.
Our team is still 6 men strong and we can confidently say that all our guys are becoming really great gardeners. The fact that they NEVER miss a Wednesday’s work is testimony to their dedication to the Verges, and also perhaps the fantastic sponsored Village Roast Coffee, and the lovely slap-up lunches that we serve. Many of our guys do not have 5 days of work a week, so please let us know if you would like a trusted, hardworking gardener to help you in your gardens.
Tomorrow, marks the beginning of a new pilot fortnightly project, that we are running with a three man team, who will be concentrating on path clearing and the upkeep of existing paths in Noordhoek. ( We will now be employing 8 men altogether). We have found that there is just too much work with the many trees and gardens that we maintain on the verges, to do justice to the paths. We have had wonderful support and encouragement from the Noordhoek Rate Payers Ass. with regard to this project and we will be erecting very discrete wooden signs to mark the paths around Noordhoek. We are in constant need of poles and latte, for the edging to our new paths, so please let us know if you have any lying around, from old fencing etc. – we are happy to collect.
Thanks to those of you who support us financially, so faithfully. Many of you have been sponsoring us for 8 to 10 years now, and we are truly grateful for your ongoing support. This years Open Gardens did not make as much money as in the past 2 years, so we are hoping to up our number of sponsors. Please would you take a few moments to forward this email onto a friend that you think would like to support our efforts. We are asking for a monthly stop order of R150 or R200 please. We would also like to encourage more businesses in Noordhoek to support us, as we believe that beautifying our valley will definitely add to tourism, property prices and business growth, (apart from bringing all of us that live here a lot of joy). All the money that supporters give us and all the money from the annual Open Garden’s Event goes to salaries for the guys.
Please follow our weekly updates on what we have managed to do on our FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/noordhoek.ontheverge