Gardener’s Cuttings
Walled gardens are on their way back
They were arguably the most efficient food production units ever seen – just about every village or parish in this country had one, but now they are far and few between.
Walled gardens are making a comeback
These small but fabulous pieces of contested landscape are otherwise known as walled kitchen gardens and for decades they've been knocked down and grubbed up, or converted into tennis courts and swimming pools.
Now walled gardens are on their way back. Take Maristow, near Plymouth, where an energetic young woman called Jenny Tunley Price is battling to transform acres of undergrowth that rise from the banks of the lower Tavy into full-blown food production. Through sheer hard labour, she is turning this lost demesne into a place where people can come and learn all manner of gardening crafts and skills. She is, in short, transforming a wilderness back into the land of milk and honey.
But Jenny is not the only one hard at work in an overgrown walled garden. There's an informal group of organisations and individual experts called the Walled Kitchen Gardens Network – formed to develop a more integrated approach to restoring such places.
The group's mission statement declares: "By helping others work together, we hope to support a renaissance of walled kitchen gardens: to tell their story, to value and share the knowledge around the country, and to hand on a rich asset to future generations".
Network committee member Mike Kleyn, head gardener at Somerset's Babington House Hotel, works to supply his establishment's restaurant with much of the fruit and vegetables it needs. But he maintains an interest in other walled gardens which are being developed around the country.
"There are many being discovered at the moment. I have four others that I'm consulting on – two are new-builds, while two are old gardens that are being revamped.
"It takes time, but you can get them going with a lot of effort," he added. "There's certainly a huge interest in walled gardens, but it is a big undertaking."
Another committee member, Tom Petherick who has his own organic smallholding in South Devon agrees. It was he who outlined the popularity of walled gardens in the past: "If you consider that, going back to the 18th century, every vicarage – going right the way up to large palaces – grew their own food and that, almost exclusively, was grown in walled gardens.
"The first thing they provided was protection, not only from the elements, but from animals, diseases, all kinds of things. You had to be a persistent badger or rabbit to get into one so they were very useful on that front and, yes, they do produce a microclimate as well."
Tom should know a thing or two about restoring old gardens – he was involved in the rejuvenation of the Lost Gardens of Heligan. "Bringing them back to life can be very expensive and the success rate does indeed depend on what you want it for," he said. "People tend to forget this sort of thing is incredibly hard work and often takes place in the cold and wet.
"One can seemingly be faced by insurmountable problems – we had a lot of those at Heligan in the early years – and with a walled garden there are other concerns, especially if you want to restore it to historic perfection."
Minterne discovers rare species
A rare species of rhododendron, thought to be the only one of its kind in the country, has been identified at Minterne Gardens in Dorset. The rhododendron beanianum was planted on the estate in 1910. It was one of many seeds found on expeditions to the Himalayas by Victorian plant hunters, and brought to the estate to form part of its gardens.
Head gardener Ray Abrahams now hopes to propagate the recently rediscovered flower and sell it to collectors.
10 Country Gardener
Blagrave’s Armillary Sphere, designed in 1585 by John Blagrave
Passionate about sundials
An historic sundial, Blagrave’s Armillary Sphere, designed in 1585 by John Blagrave of Reading and brought to life over 400 years later by award- winning sculptor David Harber, will be one of the highlights of this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show. David Harber had been making sundials for 17 years before discovering, by chance, that he was a descendant of mathematician and dialist John Blagrave (1561 – 1611), a direct contemporary of William Shakespeare. Blagrave has long been acknowledged as one of the finest ever exponents of mathematical instrument design and his work is still the subject of lectures at the British Sundial Society. His most ambitious design - The Mathematical Jewel - is recognised by experts as a scientific masterpiece. The only problem preventing a wider appreciation of his work has been the fact that no examples of Blagrave’s work currently exist.
To honour Blagrave’s name and celebrate the family connection, Harber resolved to bring this 400- year-old vision of an armillary sphere to life. As a result, Blagrave’s original design will finally see the light of day as a complex and fascinating instrument in antiqued bronze.
www.davidharber.com
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