Public vegetable garden in Cape Town

Company's Garden goes back to its roots

A public vegetable and herb garden has been created at the Company’s Garden, a Cape Town landmark in the heart of the Central Business District (CBD). A section of the historic eight-hectare site, latterly used as a car park, has been transformed into a working vegetable and herb garden.

It features a demonstration food garden, is accessible to everybody and will provide free on-site advice on how to set up your own vegetable garden. It will include plants that would have grown there during the Dutch colonial era, when the garden was established in 1652 to supply produce for ships passing through on the spice trade route.

The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC) vegetable and herb garden is described by the city as a "free, public resource" whose core message is to "promote greening initiatives in various forms.” Siutated on Queen Victoria Street the Company's Garden has been a public park since 1848, and contains South Africa's oldest cultivated pear tree, estimated to have been planted in 1652. The park is open daily from 07.30-20.30 in the summer (Dec- Feb) and 07.00-19.00 during the rest of the year. For more details see website.