In the exhibition the Vasa Museum Garden the visitor can freely botanise among the green heritage of the period. The exhibition lies out of doors behind a grey fence at the rear of the Vasa Museum.
When Vasa was excavated, an upturned pot was found together with a mortar and some (a spoon typically for soups). What sort of food was being prepared in the pot? Did the ship's surgeons really use a mortar and pestle?
Such objects from Vasa and contemporary documents concerning the ship's provisions have inspired the exhibition, the Vasa Museum Garden.
The garden contains vegetables, medicinal herbs and flowers - the food and medicine for the crew onboard the ship. But they were also cultivated by the farmers and townsfolk in their plots, and the rich in their gardens.
The fence on the outside of the garden is covered with rambling bunches of hops. The hop cones were harvested in the late summer and both flavoured and conserved the ships' beer.
Inside the museum there is a small exhibition which further describes the connection between the garden and Vasa.