Cultivating Our Dream: Bokmakierie Nursery & Homestead home of Soil-to-Soil Learning Centre

Bokmarkierie Nursery & Homestead - Home of Soil-to-Soul Permaculture, Zone 2, South Africa

We’ve been keeping a big secret, and it’s finally time to share it with you. For a some time now, Gené and I have held a shared vision close to our hearts: a desire to build a vibrant, welcoming space for anyone who feels that inner pull toward living in deeper connection with the Earth.

Whether you’re passionate about permaculture, fascinated by dense Miyawaki micro-forests, curious about syntropic agriculture, exploring off-grid homesteading, or simply looking to bring sustainable design into your daily life—we wanted to build a home for us all to learn together.  

That dream is officially becoming a reality!

We are systematically prepping the site to launch our brand-new permaculture learning hub— (the Soil-to-Soul Learning centre) hosted at the Bokmakierie Nursery and homestead in Velddrift.

Land stewardship:

We believe true land stewardship isn't learned from books alone; it’s born with soil under our fingernails.

Both of us are cultivating permaculture forest systems on the West Coast of South Africa - in our case, as part of 2 river ecologies- (I live in Hopefield on the Zoute river and Gené at Bokmakierie, which lays adjacent to the Bergriver estuary in Velddrif). What we are observing, is that we are both facing unique ecological challenges in our own systems. Gardening and farming in our Zone 2 climate means navigating fierce winds, hot summers, and intense water scarcity. 

  At Bokmakiere the soil structure is mostly sandy soils, whereas The Hopefield Homestead's soil is compacted clay with no topsoil.

BUT, we really don't see these conditions as obstacles—we see them as our teachers.

Soil-to-Soul was born to give our own permaculture and gardening community a practical, hands-on space to figure out what works right here in our local environment.

It’s about building living soil, saving water, and working with nature instead of constantly fighting against it.

The Heart of Our Site: The 5 Forest Vision

Central to our Learning centre will be what we call our Five Forest Vision.

We are actively shaping and connecting five distinct, interconnected forest systems to demonstrate how diverse ecological design creates resilience through intentional design.

We will learn from : 

1. The Kokerboom Forest: Celebrating Southern Africa's arid heritage with ancient Quiver trees, aloes, and natural stone.

2. The Waterwise Habitat Forest (Wild Heart): Showcasing how indigenous, drought-tolerant species like Acacias thrive with minimal irrigation.   Perfect ecosystem for Parks, schools, community areas as it has minimal water and outside input due to heavy leaf mulch on the forest floor.

3. The Food Forest: A multi-layered, productive canopy of established fruit trees and shade-giving support species that will serve as food system for pollinators, humans, animals and wildlife.  This system is a low maintenance system, perfect for garden farms and small holdings.

4. The Miyawaki Forest: A dense, fast-growing micro-forest acting as a living classroom for rapid soil regeneration and biodiversity ( curently in progress at our demonstration site).

5. Syntropic Lines: Fast-growing biomass corridors that protect our young native trees from the West Coast wind while continuously building fertile soil.  (Our newest edition, completed in Autumn 2026) This system is highly productive lines and perfect for small farms or homesteads.

   
   

Together, these five forests serves us as a living laboratory where we can see, touch, and understand whole-system ecosystem design in real time.  

What’s Ahead: Rollout at the End of October 2026

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We are head-down right now putting infrastructure in place, planting out support species, and preparing our learning spaces.

Starting at the end of October 2026, we will officially launch and list our interactive nature inspired programmes, including:  

• Hands-on Workshops & Environmental Talks: 

  Deep dives into local ecology, composting, and water harvesting.

• Permaculture & Agroforestry Courses: 

  Practical training on designing systems that build abundance over time.

• Homesteading Essentials: 

  Down-to-earth skills, from integrating small livestock like chickens, ducks or rabbits into forest systems to basic self-sufficiency skills around your home and yields.

  
  

This project is a labour of love, and we are so grateful to have you along for the journey!

Keep an eye out for behind-the-scenes updates over the coming weeks as we get everything ready for our soft launch at Bokmakierie nurseryś annual KAKTUS & KRISTAL festival taking place on 12 September 2026.

Have you been wanting to explore permaculture or homesteading on the West Coast?

What specific skills are you most eager to learn?

Drop a comment below—we’d love to hear from you!

To stay up to date with Soil-to-Soul, check us out on Social media or at www.soil-to-soul.co.za