Oakhurst Farm has history in the Garden Route – covering approx. 640 hectares of land – of which 200 hectares is pristine fynbos and indigenous forest – the farm is run commercially by the Crowther family – sixth generation descendants of the original purchaser, Henry Dumbleton, who bought the land in 1820. It is one of the few remaining large working dairy farms along the Garden Route but is also well known for its stylish accommodation and the wide variety of outdoor activities around the farm for their guests, including hiking trails to the waterfalls, horse-riding, fishing on the dam or cycling through the indigenous forest.
The Precious Tree Project team has history with Oakhurst Farm – the Crowthers’ inherited a farm not only with many hectares of pristine indigenous forest but they also inherited highly invasive non indigenous trees such as wattle, blackwood and pine. While these serve as a great resource for the farm’s requirements (firewood for the guests, mulch, etc.) clearing them is an ongoing challenge and a costly one at that. The Crowthers’ have remained committed to the clearing process over the years as well as continuously planting out more pockets of endemic species on their farm.
On Saturday 4 September, in celebration of Arbour month and as part of their ongoing tree planting efforts, we joined forces with them yet again and shared a memorable morning with their weekend guests planting out a small bio-mimicked forest mix of true Yellowwood, Boekenhout, Outeniqua Yellowwood, Wild Peach and Tree Fuchsia at their AfriCamps site.
Thank you Jake and Claire for always making room for more indigenous trees!
If you would like to support our ongoing efforts of assisted regeneration of our forest biome in the Garden Route, click here!
