The garden spans 3,5 hectares (8 acres). The design was inspired by the historic Company’s Garden in Cape Town, which for centuries supplied ships sailing between Europe and Asia with vegetables and fruit. It also makes a playful nod to the mythological Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which are (possibly erroneously) thought to have been created by Nebuchadnezzar in the sixth century BC, for his wife who longed for the mountains and valleys of her youth.

French architect Patrice Taravella designed the garden. It includes vegetable patches, orchards of fruit and nuts, fragrant indigenous plants, ducks and chickens, bees for pollinating, a prickly pear maze to wander through and a palette of trees of historical or botanical significance. It features more than 300 varieties of trees alone, and thousands of plant species.

There’s a Healing Garden, a splendid Succulent House as well as the Spice House, which tells the story of the spice trade with the East. A collection of some 7,000 clivia lilies bloom spectacularly every spring, while rose towers covered with fragrant varieties and an aromatic chamomile lawn bloom in early summer.

The tour of our formal fruit and vegetable garden starts at the Farm Shop at 10h00 daily

During the week you can join our 11h30 special collections garden tour, also departing from the Farm Shop. Depending on the time of year, guests will be taken to see the succulent collection, the cycads next to the stream or for a walk through the Healing Garden. Garden tours continue, come rain or shine.

Alternatively, join our chefs and gardeners for one of our hands-on-workshops.