Who answers the phone, who shows up at your gate, and what we hold ourselves to on every job from Strand to Hermanus.
I didn't find this trade — I was raised in it. My dad has spent his working life in gardens, and he's still at it today, running his own business the way he always has. I grew up around ground being shaped, beds being planted and gardens being looked after, and I learned the work the way you can't learn it from a course: by doing it, next to someone who'd been doing it forever.
In 2021 I started Earth Craft to do the work under my own name. Five years on, it's still me you get — I do the walkarounds, I design the gardens, I'm on site with the crew, and I answer my own phone. WhatsApp the number on this page and it rings in my pocket, not in an office.
The name says what I believe about the work. Earth, because everything good in a garden starts below it — the soil, the drainage, the roots, the part nobody photographs. Craft, because this is a trade you get better at for your whole life, and I intend to.
The rule I took from home hasn't changed: leave the ground better than you found it, and leave the site tidy every evening.
— Nathan
Earth Craft scales — two hands for a small garden, a full crew for a build — but the standards don't. Everyone on your property is there under the same arrangement you agreed with Nathan: the gate code kept, the dog respected, the site tidy and safe every evening, tools packed, rubble contained and removed as stages finish. Progress goes to your WhatsApp at each stage, so you can follow your whole build from the office. The person who quoted your garden is the person building it — there is no version of Earth Craft where you deal with a stranger.
Somerset West · Strand · Gordon's Bay. Fastest response, small jobs welcome, and the ground we know best — including exactly what the southeaster does to a poorly planned bed.
Hermanus and the coast road — Kleinmond, Betty's Bay, Onrus. Coastal gardens that live with salt wind and sandy soil, planted accordingly.
Stellenbosch and the valley — bigger properties, established trees, gardens that want structure and restraint rather than reinvention.
Fish Hoek to Constantia and Tokai; Camps Bay and the seaboard out to Blouberg. Worth the drive for builds, rejuvenations and care plans.
The price we quote is the price you pay. Staged payments on builds track work you can see.
WhatsApp answered by Nathan, usually within the day. If we're in a trench, it might be the evening — but it'll be the same day.
Mid-build or maintenance visit, you get your space back at the end of each day — safe, walkable, and not looking like a battlefield.
Every photograph that ever appears on this site will be a garden we designed, built or care for. No stock images, ever. If it looks too polished to be real, it isn't here.
If your garden needs a R2,000 fix and not a R60,000 rebuild, that's what you'll hear. It's a small trade on a small coast — reputation is the whole business.
Prefer to talk? Call 083 269 1552 — flexible hours, Monday to Saturday. Free walkarounds, written quotes, no obligation.