How this site works
This site is put together by someone who lives in Manor Gardens, in their spare time, because the suburb deserved one place for the things neighbours keep asking each other about.
The one minute version
One weekend, told in pictures: the outage alert, a plumber a neighbour vouched for, a lost dog found, and a snake that turned out to be harmless.
It is free, and it stays free
Nobody pays to list, nobody pays to look, and there are no adverts. The site earns nothing and is not trying to. Posting a classified, listing a service, logging a sighting or reporting a lost pet all cost the same: nothing.
Classifieds
A listing runs for seven days, and you get an email the day before it ends in case you want another week. The first time you post, we email you a link to confirm it is really you; while you have a listing up, any more you add go up straight away. When something goes, you can mark it sold, swapped or given away. It stays up, marked, until its week is over, so neighbours can see things do move here, but your number comes off it at once.
Local services
Providers are listed by themselves or recommended by a neighbour, and a listing shows as Unverified until the provider confirms their own contact details by email. Nobody here vets their work, which is why the recommendations matter: each one is a neighbour who confirmed their own email to vouch for them. Messages to a provider are passed on by email so their address is never printed on the page, and they reply to you directly.
Wildlife sightings
When you log a sighting, we email you once to confirm it, and then it joins the permanent record. Your name is never shown. The guides are written for this suburb, and every photograph and bird call is credited to the person who took or recorded it.
Power outages
Every quarter of an hour the site checks the reports neighbours make on the EskomSePush app for our area. When enough of them say the power is off, an alert goes up here, and anyone who asked for outage notifications gets one on their phone. It comes down again when the reports say the power is back.
Weather warnings
Warnings come from the South African Weather Service. Only ones that name eThekwini or Durban, and that have not yet expired, are shown, so a warning for somewhere else in KwaZulu-Natal does not appear as if it were here.
Your details
Your email address is used to confirm what you post and to let you change or remove it, and never for anything else. It is never shown publicly, and the only time it goes to anyone is when you message a provider yourself, so that they can reply. A few things are kept only on your own phone: your garden list, your best score in the bird call game, and, if you post a classified, your number and email so the next one is quicker. The privacy policy has the detail.
Something wrong, or an idea?
If a listing looks off, a number has changed, or there is something you wish the site did, say so. Most of what is here exists because a neighbour asked for it.
Credits
The one minute story: narration voiced with ElevenLabs; music and sound effects made for it. The hadeda in it is a recording by Shaun Swanepoel on iNaturalist, used under CC BY. Thandi, Biscuit and Sipho's Plumbing are made up. Photographs and bird calls in the wildlife guides are credited where they appear.