In past times, pretty much all of England's significant country estates would have boasted a walled kitchen garden. As there were no supermarkets, growing your own vegetables and fruit would have been a sensible option - especially if you could afford to hire a couple of gardeners to do the work for you.
The walls acted like a windbreak and discouraged thievery. Within, you could develop a micro-climate in which plants might thrive.
Above - I snipped that aerial view of the kitchen garden at Hungerford Park from Google Maps. The derelict house from which I snapped that window photo is in the top left hand corner of the rectangle - also shown at the bottom of this blogpost.
I did take a few pictures inside the walled garden that I am going to share with you now...
Damsons
Giant thistles
Cynara cardunculus
Ian, Zachary and sunflowers
Old water tanks being repurposed to create a water feature
The gardeners house was really beautiful in its day, and fancier than I would expect for hired help.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness.....that child has peach colored hair! How magnificent!!! What a doll! And, your son looks more like you, my brother, every time I see a picture! Anyway, how did they make a micro-climate those days? Just the green hedge barrier or other inventions? The way we made a micro-climate in the mountains was to have a greenhouse! I had barrels of water sitting in the greenhouse which were kept warm by the sunshine every day (almost) at 9,000 feet ASL and by German engineering of the windows in the roof of the garden. A tube filled with an oil/greasy compound that opened the windows at the top when hot and lowered them when the compound got cold and stiff. The most wonderful invention. Oh, how I miss my greenhouse! That and the well water from 9,000 feet down!!
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