The City has a Green Heart
Brent Meersman reminds us that the real attraction of the Gardens remains the plants. The gardens are laudably well-tended, clean and thriving.
The City of Cape Town has been busy with a R1 million upgrade to South Africa's oldest public garden, the Company's Garden, laid out by Jan van Riebeeck and master gardener Hendrik Boom who prepared the first ground for sowing seed on the 29 April 1652. A Pyrus communis tree (Saffraan Pear) planted around this time still exists propped up and surgically rescued. It’s worth the pilgrimage.
The garden was intended to be primarily for vegetables to victual the ships of the Dutch East India Company, but in time it became a botanical garden. The first roses bloomed on November 1st, 1659.
Simon van der Stel and his master gardeners, Hendrik Bernard Oldenland and Jan Hartog, planted indigenous and exotic ornamental species. Johan Andries Auge, superintendent from 1751, planted many indigenous collections. One of his Streletzia nicolai is thought to still be alive today.
In Victorian times, lions were kept in the grounds now occupied by Cape Town High School.
The Gardens embrace the cultural precinct of the city, with the Slave Museum, SA Museum and Planetarium, the National Library, the National Gallery, the Holocaust Centre and Tuynhuys, among other important institutions.
Now the Cape Town Mayoral Committee are considering turning "the Bothy", the old farm labourers' quarters, into a cafe, coffee shop or take-ways kiosk and possibly the old Director's House into a restaurant. Both buildings were renovated in 2008.
Talk of sprucing up the rather faded “corner” café at the heart of the Gardens has been going on for years. Sitting under the giant bluegums with beady-eyed squirrels peeping around the trees and always the possibility of a bit of pigeon garnish landing on one’s plate, I’m still in two minds about this café.
It would be wonderful to have something chic and comfortable in this glorious setting. On the other hand, this is a plebeian democratic space, relatively affordable: anchovy (paste) toast at R10 a slice; a R20 plate of slap chips; a plain hamburger for R28; a small French salad for R22 – but all of it equally bland.
At the top end of their menu there is a mixed grill for R105, and grilled kingklip for R80. When the food arrives, one sees the postcard-writing tourists stare at their plates, shrug and then get on with eating it while the less fussy squirrels entertain them.
One stops by this café for a quick fix, maybe a cuppa tea. The real attraction of the Gardens remains the plants. The gardens are laudably well-tended, clean and thriving. You may be accosted by a religious nut with a Bible, shouting and followed by four poor-white disciples in short pants, as I was the other day, but the grounds are pretty safe.
Among my favourite trees are the century old tree aloe (Aloe bainesii), the 200-year-old Outeniqua yellowwood and the Indian rubber tree. Then there are the birds. Plenty of pigeons, doves, hadedas and Egyptian geese, but also the impressive Gymnogene (African Harrier Hawk) and dazzling Malachite sunbirds.
It is good to know the city has a green heart.
This is an extract of the article by Brent Meersman that first appeared in the current edition of the Friday supplement of the Mail & Guardian.
FOR THE RECORD
Manager, of The Company’s Garden, Rory Phelan, advises that the paragraph: ‘Now the Cape Town Mayoral Committee…. “ is incorrect. The Director’s House is now a Visitor’s Center and the Bothy is not going to become a cafe.
