Company's Garden

Company's Garden
Company's Garden
Type	Botanical
Location	Cape Town, South Africa
Coordinates	33°55′40″S 18°25′01″E / 33.92778°S 18.41694°E
Area	3.2 ha (7.9 acres)
Created	29 April 1652; 372 years ago
Operated by	City of Cape Town

The Company's Garden is the oldest garden in South Africa, a park and heritage site located in central Cape Town.^[1] The garden was originally created in the 1650s by the region's first European settlers and provided fertile ground to grow fresh produce to replenish ships rounding the Cape. It is watered from the Molteno Dam, which uses water from the springs on the lower slopes of Table Mountain.^[2]

History

The Dutch East India Company established the garden in Cape Town for the purpose of providing fresh vegetables to the settlement as well as passing ships. Master gardener and free burgher Hendrik Boom prepared the first ground for sowing of seed on 29 April 1652. The settlers sowed different kinds of seeds and kept record thereof each day. Through trial and error they managed to compile a calendar which they used for the sowing and harvesting throughout the year. At first they grew salad herbs, peas, large beans, radish, beet, spinach, wheat, cabbage, asparagus and turnips among others. They caught fish, trapped wild animals and traded with the Khoisan for cattle and sheep with copper and tobacco. By 1653 the garden allowed the settlers to become self sustainable throughout the year. As the settlement grew, additional farming land was prepared at Rondebosch in 1656. By 1658 nearly every garden plant of Europe and India was already cultivated in the garden, though potatoes and maize were not yet introduced.^[3]

Before 1680 the Company's Garden was mainly used to produce vegetables, until Simon van der Stel laid out the ground afresh for the purpose of beautifying the garden. During the 17th century the garden was made famous by writers of various nationalities, claiming that visitors who had seen the most celebrated gardens of Europe and India were agreed that nowhere else in the world was so great a variety of trees and shrubs of vegetables and flowers to be met with together. The garden superintendent and Botanist Hendrik Bernard Oldenland compiled a herbarium which was sent to the Netherlands after his sudden death. In 1770 the 'Catalogue of Plants' was found in possession of Professor Burmann of Amsterdam.^[4]

Features in the park

The oldest cultivated pear tree in South Africa (circa 1652)
A rose garden designed and built in 1929
A well stocked fish pond
Dellville Wood Memorial Garden, which commemorates the World War I Battle of Delville Wood in France, in which a predominantly South African force of more than 3,000 soldiers was reduced to 755 survivors by German forces
An aviary
Restaurant – The Company's Garden Restaurant
Botanically and historically valuable trees
Local arts and crafts along the avenue
Lawns and benches
A herb and succulent garden
Historic statues
Iziko South African Museum and Iziko National Gallery
Various wild, feral and semi-domesticated species of birds and animals, including the African turtle dove, laughing dove, rock dove, Egyptian goose and squirrels.

Monuments

Subject	Location	Designer/Sculptor	Date of unveiling	Notes
Cecil John Rhodes 1855–1902 Your hinterland is there	33°55′35.8″S 18°25′02.8″E / 33.926611°S 18.417444°E / -33.926611; 18.417444 (Cecil John Rhones)	Herbert Baker	28 June 1910 –University of Cape Town Newspaper Archives Cape Argus	Main article: Statue of Cecil Rhodes, Company's Garden
Japanese Lantern Monument	33°55′33″S 018°25′6″E / 33.92583°S 18.41833°E / -33.92583; 18.41833		1932	Main article: Japanese Lantern Monument
Artillery Memorial	33°55′41.8″S 18°24′58.4″E / 33.928278°S 18.416222°E / -33.928278; 18.416222			Main article: Artillery Memorial, Cape Town
Delville Wood Memorial This memorial commemorates the South Africans who died in the Great Wars 1914–1918, 1939–1944.	33°55′41″S 18°24′57.3″E / 33.92806°S 18.415917°E / -33.92806; 18.415917 (Delville Wood Memorial)	Herbert Baker	3 November 1930	Main article: Delville Wood Memorial
Major General Sir Henry Timson Lukin EKCB CMG DSO Commander Legion Nile Born 24 May 1860 Died 16 December 1925 He served his King and beloved by his fellow men	33°55′40.2″S 18°24′56.2″E / 33.927833°S 18.415611°E / -33.927833; 18.415611	Anton van Wouw	March 3, 1932 (University of Cape Town Newspaper Archives Cape Argus).
Sir George Grey K.C.B Governor 1854–1861	33°55′32.3″S 18°25′06.6″E / 33.925639°S 18.418500°E / -33.925639; 18.418500 (Sir George Grey)	William Calder Marshall	1863	Main article: Statue of George Grey
AIDS Memorial	33°55′40.1″S 18°24′59.5″E / 33.927806°S 18.416528°E / -33.927806; 18.416528 (AIDS Memorial)		2002
Temperance Memorial Jesus said whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst But the water that I shall give him shall be in him as a well of that I shall give him shall never thirst water springing up into everlasting life	33°55′35″S 18°25′01″E / 33.92639°S 18.41694°E / -33.92639; 18.41694 (Temperance Memorial)		1861	Main articles: Temperance fountain and Temperance movement
Field Marshal General Jan Christian Smuts 1870 – 1950	33°55′42.4″S 18°24′59.2″E / 33.928444°S 18.416444°E / -33.928444; 18.416444	Sydney Harpley	29 May 1964	Main article: Statue of Jan Christian Smuts (Cape Town)
Lioness Gateway	33°55′49″S 18°24′52″E / 33.93028°S 18.41444°E / -33.93028; 18.41444 (Lioness Gateway)	Anton Anreith	1805

Nearby places of interest

Parliament and Tuynhuys are adjacent to the park
National Library of South Africa
St George's Cathedral
Slave Lodge
Centre for the Book
Gardens Shul, South African Jewish Museum
Cape Town Holocaust Centre
Hiddingh Campus, University of Cape Town
Mount Nelson Hotel

Events

The Company's Garden hosts the annual Cape Town Festival.
Cape Peninsula University of Technology usually has the annual walking/city tour that concludes at the garden.

References

^ "Company Gardens Cape Town". South African Heritage Resource Agency. Archived from the original on 23 August 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
^ "City's Green Heart Saves Water". Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
^ Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, January 1656 – December 1658, Riebeeck's Journal &c, H.C.V Leibrandt, Part II, Cape Town 1897.
^ History of South Africa (1486–1691), G.M. Theal, London 1888

External links

[1] "Company Gardens Cape Town". South African Heritage Resource Agency. Archived from the original on 23 August 2013. Retrieved 1 September 2012.

[2] "City's Green Heart Saves Water". Archived from the original on 12 August 2014. Retrieved 27 September 2012.

[Precis1656-1658-3] Precis of the Archives of the Cape of Good Hope, January 1656 – December 1658, Riebeeck's Journal &c, H.C.V Leibrandt, Part II, Cape Town 1897.

[HisSA88-206-4] History of South Africa (1486–1691), G.M. Theal, London 1888

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