"The Portuguese Market Gardens were a significant feature of my childhood from the early 1960s. According to my late dad, although I’ve never researched for confirmation of this, the Market Gardens were on what remained of a larger agricultural set-up that became The Gardens (which was proclaimed in 1902), and the street names of the suburb reflect these bucolic origins - Plantation Road, Grove Road, Nursery Road and so on.

They stretched in the west from High Road opposite Our Parents Home and the bowling club to The Avenue and then across the road all the way to what is now the extension of African Street that borders Cheltondale Park. In this map, dating back to before 1926, the position of the Market Gardens is indicated by the void east of The Gardens.

From 1926, when the Hilson Bridge was constructed, up until the mid-70s, Sixth Avenue came down from Louis Botha Avenue and turned diagonally left where an entrance now is to the Hypermarket, coming out onto The Avenue in the dip just before the Hilson Bridge. This kind of road set-up where three downhill stretches came together was not ideal and the intersection was the scene of many an accident. We at least established that the stone work on the bridge itself was pretty solid.

So, there was a triangular piece between The Avenue and the diagonally flowing Sixth Avenue. You could say then that the Portuguese market gardens were in three pieces. The upper border of the eastern part of the market gardens was roughly where the Highlands North Boys rugby fields end. This aerial from the 1950s clearly shows the contour lines of cultivated land.

There was one of those characteristic red tin roof buildings with cream walls on the triangular piece of land, accessed from both The Avenue and the diagonal part of Sixth Avenue by a dirt track. This was one of the green grocers on the property. To the east on the other side of Sixth Avenue there was a similar green grocer right next to the road.

Each had a fading red polish floor and little light. It was cool inside and filled with the smells of fresh vegetables. Most of these were grown across the property, or so the proprietors said. They were highly skilled with one of those knives that’s almost big enough to be a machete. They would grab a bunch of carrots and with one swift sweep could lop off the green parts, an amazing and somewhat frightening feat when you’re still a small child.

Roughly where the Builders branch is now there was a farm dam with a pump house and pipes to irrigate the land. This dam lapped up against what was then the cul de sac of African Street. (The extension was built only when the Hypermarket came along.)

The farm dam ringed by willow trees was the scene of childhood adventures and misadventures featuring swinging on the willows, whips made from willow, makeshift boats and lots of mud. The farmers declared it out of bounds, so it was always touch-and-go as to how long one could mess around by the dam.

Then, sometime around 1970/1 part of the dam wall came down. Legend at H A Jack Primary had it that three of the naughtiest boys in Standard Five had been messing around on a piece of a cable drum when the wall broke and sort of surfed the wave down. It was only some years later that I appreciated this legend for what it really was.

The farmers employed part-time labourers to tend the fields and do the picking. They would work fairly close together in groups. In the early mornings their singing would waft across to where we lived a couple of blocks up at 43 The Avenue opposite George’s Café (now an Indian restaurant). Around lunch time the singing was replaced with the practising of the Highlands North Boys cadet band. There was something quite moving about hearing the Last Post bugled out across the valley, even when one was small with no idea what it was about.

The Portuguese Market Gardens produced tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, beetroot, spinach, radish, celery and so on. There was a patch just to the south of the spruit, bordered by what is now the vet, that was devoted only to mielies. This is what this area looks like today.

The first wind of change blew in in the early 1970s when the western section was cleared and graded. Soon after, construction began on what is now Norwood Garden Village, but was called Sanlam Park at first.  A couple of years after that, one of the green grocer stores was demolished so that Sixth Avenue could be straightened and become what it is today.