Company’s Garden shapes Cape Town in many ways – its history, layout, botany, air quality, temperature, leisure and monuments.

Its bedrock is fertile clay from the old Malmesbury Group of shale. This is enhanced by decomposed flora and fauna, the run off from plants and fresh water from the mountains behind.

Frequented by nomadic people for millennia, it was seasonal grazing for the herds of cattle and sheep of the pastoral Khoi. Plants used by the San hunter gatherers (such as medicinal herbs) are in the Garden today.

Why the horticulture?

The Dutch East India Company (VOC) created their base here to provide fresh vegetables, fruit, wine and rosewater for ships on their journey around the Cape of Good Hope. It was half way between Amsterdam and Batavia, their trade base the East (current day Jakarta in Indonesia). This usually took three months to and from the Cape. Whereas the overland trip took a year, and the chances of being robbed or charged taxes were high.

The East was the source of highly valued goods that they could sell back home to make vast fortunes. Spices were in huge demand and highly valued (the equivalent to oil now).

Humble beginnings of agriculture in the Cape

Jan van Riebeeck was tasked with leading the establishment of the refreshment station. He lands here with 125 other Europeans on 6 April 1652.

The illiterate Hendrik Boom van Riebeeck’s first master gardener. He prepared the ground for the first sowing of seeds on 29 April 1652. On 20 July van Riebeeck notes with great pleasure the progress of his little garden, with first sprouting peas, beans, beetroot, spinach, radishes and other vegetables.  Wheat, turnips and cabbages grew close to fort (on the current day Grand Parade).

First farm failure

The small farm, however, was not an instant success. Only vegetables growing low on the ground could survive the winds. To encourage reluctant fruit trees to grow, imported species were grafted onto local wild trees, then planted in the Garden.

There were frequent requests made to Amsterdam and Batavia for seeds. Regular reports were made on the progress of the Garden. Problems included devastation by the weather, encroachment by the Khoi, visiting sailors on the scrounge and wild animals. Ash trees and brambles were planted around the garden as a protective hedge.

Seeds and saplings to dyes, pickled fruit and wine

The oldest surviving tree in the Garden is the Saffron Pear, Pyrus Communis, brought from the Netherlands. The leaves could dye wool a saffron yellow colour. The fruit, despite being small, was used in pickles and preserves.

In 1655 the first vine cuttings arrived, probably Semillon, Chenin Blanc, Muscat of Alexandria and Muscat de Frontignan. On 2 February 1659 Van Riebeeck wrote in his diary: ‘Today, praise be to God, wine was made for the first time from the Cape grapes, and the new must fresh from the tub was tasted.’ No other wine region in the world knows its foundation date. It is increasingly being celebrated in the Cape.

Once the vegetables, fruits, herbs and medical plants were established. Boom introduced ornamental plants, including oaks, pines and roses (the first were reported to have bloomed on 1 November 1659).

While some visitors raided the Garden, others admired its beauty and tranquility. In 1685 the French visitor, Father Tachard, writes it is “One of the loveliest and most curious gardens I ever saw … Walks reaching out of sight, planted with lemon trees, pomegranate, orange, surrounded by thick windbreaks of lamel (spekboom); garden divided into squares with apple, pear, quince, apricot, also ananas [pineapples] and banana trees and other excellent fruits.”

In the top right-hand corner of the Garden, now Government Avenue, the VOC initially planted lemon trees and then in 1700 added orange trees. Perhaps this is why it is called Orange Street or it could have been because of the Prince of Orange of the Netherlands). This citrus with its vitamin C content, was to treat and prevent sailors from scurvy.

Gradually hedges became effective barriers.

Upsetting first peoples’long established paths  

The VOC’s settlement lay directly in the path of Khoi grazing routes. Initially the VOC only had dealings with the stockless Goringhaicona. But by December the Cochoqua arrived with their cattle and understandably didn’t care for the VOC’s boundaries. They came through the fort’s gates and were kept out of the Garden with difficulty.

The Cochoqua were not interested in bartering their cattle with VOC’s copper trinkets, which was unfortunate for the VOC staff who were hungry, desperate for beef and mutton!

The first full time in situ farmers

The Garden was tended by Company employees and enslaved people under Boom’s direction. In October 1657 the VOC gave permission to release some employees and grant them freehold lands to farm. These burgers were only allowed to sell their produce to the Company at fixed prices. They were reliant on rice imports, and remained heavily indebted to the Company. They were forbidden to trade with the Khoi.

Some 40% either applied to return to the VOC, requested permission to leave the settlement, or stowed away on departing ships.

Ultimately it was farming established along the Liesbeek river that provided the much-needed food for the refreshment station.

Horticultural and ornamental to remodelling and a zoo

Simon van der Stel (1639 – 1712), was the last VOC Commander and first Governor of the settlement; he arrived in 1679, retiring in 1699. He had a huge interest in horticulture, so took immediate interest in the Garden. He widened the central walk and so divided the garden into two distinct halves, establishing the Avenue we know today.

Citrus was replaced with oak trees, perhaps for making wine barrels (he was a wine lover – hence planting vineyards at Groot Constantia). During and shortly after van der Stel’s time the Garden measured 1 020 meters by 273 metres. It was divided into four rectangular blocks by hedges which also served as windbreaks.

The process of extending the Garden towards the mountain probably started in the 1700s under one of Simon’s sons, Willem Adriaan van der Stel, who governed 1699 – 1707. He established a zoo at the top, with the Avenue ending at the zoo. Later the Avenue was extended to pass through the zoo. The walls were built by Herman Schutte and designed by Thibault. This established the division of the zoo into two, with an aviary and an enclosure for antelopes on the left and predators on the right.

Decline and erratic care

As the VOC’s power declined the Garden followed suit. From 1792 when the VOC found itself in financial trouble, the Garden became neglected.

Under British rule the Garden was looked after, but inconsistently. Sir George Yonge, 1799 – 1801 Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, was responsible for the Garden’s replanting. Yonge at one time prevented citizens from using the Garden. This was so badly received that the rule was overturned by Andrew Barnard, the Colony Secretary. However, Yonge did request visitors to sign a book at the guard’s house when entering.

Institutional and urban creep 

As the town began to take shape it affected the lower end of the Garden. In the early VOC days a small portion was cut off to provide a new church and graveyard for the Groote Kerk and Church Square. Later more land was sacrificed for expanding the Slave Lodge and building the Hospital at the top of Heerengracht (now Adderley Street).

In the British era, new buildings increasingly encroached on the Garden. Land was sold off, with public buildings at one end and residential at the other.

Lord Charles Somerset (Governor 1814 – 1826) considerably enlarged Government House (now called Tuynhuis) and the land attached to it.

In 1827 0.4 ha was granted to the Church of England ie the Anglicans. Later this became St. George’s Cathedral.

During the 1880s, amongst other buildings, Parliament House and the Public Library (now the National Library) were constructed.

In 1897 the South African Museum, founded in 1825, moved from the Library to its present building in the Garden’s middle section.

Nearby the 1930 the colony’s art gallery opened on Government Ave, now called the Iziko South African National Gallery.

Victorian pleasure and WW1 memorial garden

During the latter part of the funding came from monthly subscribers to a small part was set aside for botanical experiments. It was not sustainable but set in motion the start of a botanical garden in Cape Town (today’s Kirstenbosch Botanical Garden).

The Garden became like a Victorian park seen in many cities in the UK. It had a band stand, public ‘conveniences’, lawns, fountains, terracotta trimmed flowerbeds and park benches.

After WW1, land was flattened to make way for commemorative garden with axis linking the buildings.  The Delville Wood memorial by architect John Cleland was based on the South African National Memorial in Delville Wood, France. This was designed by Sir Herbert Baker, both memorials have sculpture by Alfred Turner.

Recent changes – subtle to contemporary 

A new addition to this formal part of the Garden is the monument to the 1 600 black South African soldiers who fought in WW1. Durban based Dean Jay Architects won the competition open to all South African architects. Organised and funded by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, it was completed in 2024 with a ceremonial opening in January 2025.

Some lament the loss of a Ginko tree and a lawn for the new memorial. No doubt some complained when a car park in the Garden, also on the Queen Victoria Road side, was turned back into a garden! The grid design is based on a drawing from the VOC era. It is a productive and educational garden, designed by Wolff Architects. It opened in 2014, one of Cape Town’s World Design Capital projects.

The gardeners employed by the municipality ie City, tend this and all the Garden. But for the last two years vintage varieties of fruit and veg have been introduced and cared for by a small business nearby: Heritage Shop at the Company’s Garden and its cafe, Coffee at The Vine.

An ever evolving popular, public space

Today the Garden is a precious green lung. It is full of life yet a place to escape the bustle of the city, as befits the oldest garden in the country.

The Garden is used daily by commuters, students and tourists. Some love the echoes of history, others the plants or grey and white squirrels. It is beautiful short cut to work, town or school.

Here’s to the Company’s Garden.

Many thanks

Kate Crane Briggs

Comments and feedback welcome

kate@cultureconnectsa.com

This article was inspired by landscape architect’s, Clare Burgess, walking tour of the trees and design of the Garden. Let me know if you would like me to programme another public one, or, your own private tour.

Become a Friend of the Company’s Garden – they are active on Facebook. Email Ansia Jonk of the Heritage Shop and Coffee at The Vine.

Sources include

The Cape Town Book, Nechama BrodieKnow your Cape, John Muir
Secret Cape Town, Justin Fox and Allison Westwood
http://www.theheritageportal.co.za/article/short-history-companys-garden-cape-town
http://capetownhistory.com/?page_id=856
Cape Town The Making of a City, Nigel Worden, Elizabeth van Heyningen and Vivian Bickford-Smith
Vassa Journal 7 June 2002 How the garden grew a brief spatial history of the Cape Town Gardens – Stewart Harris
Section 27 Application by Kyad Knight Piesold (Pty)Ltd May 2015  https://www.sahra.org.za/sahris/sites/default/files/additionaldocs/2015%2005%2003%20Government%20Avenue%20report-ilovepdf-compressed.pdf https://artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/bldgframes_mob.php?bldgid=3387 https://www.capetownccid.org/news/companys-garden-war-memorial-honour-black-soldiers

BIG thanks to Jeanne Bonnema for her research