Eva's energising fynbos corridor talk
Community gathers at Neighbourhood Farm
It was wet and a bit wild at the first 2025 gathering of Fynbos Corridor Collaboration.
We met in the outdoor classroom of Neighbourhood Farm, an NPO in Fish Hoek, to listen to Eva van Belle, a keen fynbos gardener and hacker of alien vegetation on Elsie’s Peak above Fish Hoek.
“Plan, prepare, start small, be realistic,” said Eva. “The first couple of years will be hard work, but you will be rewarded by birds, butterflies, and other wildlife in shared urban spaces.”
The talk was an hour long, and Eva brought along plants to show everyone examples of waterwise, indigenous plants to grow.
“You never stop learning, you never stop marvelling at fynbos,” says Eva. “I moved to Fish Hoek and our garden was full of alien vegetation - Port Jackson and Rooikrantz - that I removed and replaced with fynbos. Now it’s full of animals that wander in and out, full of birds. Then I started to tackle the Zoutendyk Steps near my house, a little bit at a time.”
There were 12 guests from all over the peninsula, ranging from a landscaper to environmentalists concerned about alien trees along Boyes Drive.
When her children were at Bay Primary School in Fish Hoek, Eva established a small fynbos garden for each Grade 1 to 3 class at the Junior Campus. She held weekly gardening sessions with small groups of children, creating awareness and curiosity about fynbos and waterwise gardening. Eva stopped working with the school in 2008 when her youngest child went to high school, which is when she started gardening along Zoutendyk Steps.
Fynbos Corridor Collaboration is an NPO focused on building fynbos corridors and community in Cape Town. Started in 2018, the project was launched by Ingcungcu, Greenpop, and Communi-tree, and it was funded by the Table Mountain Fund. Over three years, these organisations, in consultation with numerous stakeholders, developed a set of guidelines for coordinated fynbos rehabilitation in Cape Town. The Fynbos Stepping-Stone Corridor Strategy, a framework, website, and mapping platform, details those guidelines.
I’ve lived in a lot of places, discovered green spaces, and found fellow greenies sharing our ecosystem. Sharing is caring, tribe. Corny, I know.
Currently living in Clovelly, Cape Town, within the Table Mountain National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.