Celebrate Garden Day

South Africans from all walks of life are joined by their love of gardens, no matter what size, shape or form. That’s why we’re celebrating Garden Day, on Sunday 15 October, with one simple ambition in mind: to encourage people to put down their tools and spend some quality time enjoying and celebrating their gardens.

Planting Garden Day Ideas: In the lead up to Garden Day, visit your nearest nursery or garden centre to get inspired. What you do in your garden on Garden Day is completely up to you, but we think it’s a great opportunity to get together with family and friends so that as many people as possible can celebrate together – it’s all about growing goodwill. For some great gardening ideas, also watch Tanya Visser’s ‘The Gardener’ show on The Home Channel for gorgeous garden inspiration.

Here are some great ideas on how to celebrate: · Use fresh flowers and greenery from your garden to make flower crowns for everyone. (See how below.) · Invite friends for a bring-n-braai, and use herbs from the garden to flavour the meat. · Invite neighbours and friends around for rooibos tea “en beskuit.” · Have a garden scavenger hunt. · Instead of book club, have a plant club. Ask guests to bring a rare or interesting plant to swop with one of the other guests. · Enjoy dinner outside in the garden, with each dish featuring a home-grown ingredient. · If you don’t have your own garden, visit someone who does and enjoy it with them.

How to Make a Flower Crown Flower crowns have been taking the world by storm recently and seem to be the go-to accessory. Here’s how to make your own:   Supplies: · Floral wire · Floral tape · Floral wire cutters · Greenery · Flowers Choose flowers that you like and that will suit the colour scheme you’re going for and how big you want the crown to be. (If you want to make a flower crown that will last for more than a few days, you can even use silk flowers.)

1. Take a piece of floral wire and form it into a circular shape. Rest it on your head to see how long the wire needs to be to form a loose crown. Cut off excessive wire and bend the rest into a circular shape. Tape the circle shut with floral tape, wrapping the tape around the wire several times.

2. Choose your greens and flowers. You should start your crown with a layer of pretty greenery that covers the wire, and which will act as the base of your crown. Tape the greenery in place with floral tape.

3. It’s time to add your flowers. Make sure the flower stems are at least 8cm long (trim stems to length with scissors or wire cutters), and tape the stem to the crown using floral tape. Just like with the greenery, you’ll want to wrap the tape around the stem about 4 – 5 times to make sure it stays. Add as many flowers to the crown as you want to.   Seeding Social: Share your Garden Day celebrations on Instagram and other social media using the hashtag #GardenDay. For more ideas and Garden Day inspiration visit  The Home Channel for to see the synopsis of Tanya Visser  garden episodes www.tanyavisser.com or www.gardenday.co.za and follow along on social media.