Latest news with #walledgarden
BBC News
19-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Gardens in Duns open to public for first time in over 40 years
A historic walled garden and glasshouses in the Borders are to open to the public for the first time in more than 40 last public viewing at the site now run by The Hugo Burge Foundation (HBF) near Duns was in foundation is taking part in Scotland's Garden Scheme which encourages owners to open their gardens to raise money for part of the initiative, the walled gardens and glasshouses will be open every Friday afternoon in July and August. The glasshouses were built in the early 20th Century by Mackenzie and Moncur, who counted Queen Victoria among their estate owner at the time, Robert Finnie McEwan, commissioned the company to design and build them as part of a grand development plan for the house and fell into disrepair before the late Hugo Burge financed their restoration and are now at the heart of the work of the foundation which carries his name. Head gardener Toby Loveday said: "The driving force behind opening the gardens is to allow people to appreciate our beautiful surroundings at the peak of summer."We're looking forward to seeing the reaction to our contemporary approach within such a historic horticultural space."As it develops, there will be opportunities for visitors to enjoy seeing the garden grow and change over all the seasons to come."HBF chief executive Lucy Brown said they hoped the site would offer visitors a "sense of beauty, nurture and calm that is often missing in the anxious and ever-present online world".
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
The allure of the walled garden, and 10 of the best to visit
The productive walled garden was a quintessential part of every large house, estate and mansion in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the richer you were, the more elaborate the glasshouses, pineapple pits and stove houses became. A homegrown pineapple or an exotic orchid gave you all-important kudos, and the more common or garden produce supplied the whole household with a varied supply of fruit, cut flowers, potted plants and vegetables. And then the First World War intervened and, devoid of care, they became sad relics of a bygone age. Thankfully, that's all changing. Many of our walled gardens are being revived, often at great expense, and offer lovely places to visit on a summer's day. Here are 10 to add to your list. Holkham Hall, Norfolk Holkham's six-acre walled garden, laid out by Samuel Wyatt in 1782, has just become an RHS partner garden. It's two thirds of a mile away from the main house, because gardeners and the smell of horse manure were kept well away from house guests. Wyatt's neoclassical vinery houses citrus plants, some direct descendants from the original orangery. You will find 16 different types of oranges and lemons, including the rarely seen Buddha's hand from Japan. The original swarthy-skinned citron lemon, described by head gardener Mark Morrell as 'the size of half a rugby ball', is equally fascinating. Kirsty Gwilliam, the vegetable gardener, grows two cool-tolerant Russian tomatoes outdoors – 'Skykomish' and 'Moskvich'. Kirsty is also growing two South African cucurbits, a squash named 'Rolet' and a white pumpkin named 'Van Niekerk', because the 7th Earl of Leicester, who died in 2015, was born in Rhodesia. The vegetables supply the household and Holkham's Victoria Hotel. Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire Andy Mills is the head gardener in charge of this massive 10-acre walled garden, one of the largest in the country, if not the largest. Construction began in 1704, before the palace was built, in order to feed the workforce. These days, the enormously high brick walls, up to 16ft in height, provide the perfect microclimate for vegetables and fruit. There's a one-acre no-dig garden producing salad crops, beetroots, carrots and brassicas, and they're interspersed with plenty of flowers to draw in the pollinators and beneficial insects. Dahlias, cut for the house, feature heavily in the potager area. A biomass boiler, using woodchip from the estate, keeps the melon house, lean-to glasshouse, vinery and peach house snug in winter. There's a butterfly house to visit, and a maze to explore, and new developments include a central pond to capture rainfall, and a small vineyard. Cambo, Fife Cambo's 19th-century organically run walled garden is more than two acres in size, and concentrates on flowers and fruit. The softly hued late-season displays, in the Piet Oudolf style, are a Cambo trademark. The sandy paths are home to at least 12 species of ground-nesting bee, and insect life abounds, from butterfly to dragonfly. The head gardener, Callum Halstead, is proud of the wildflower meadows on either side of the burn, and a recent botanical count recorded 50 wildflower species, including three species of wild orchid, which, he says, have all returned of their own accord. The oldest plants are the apples and pears, and there are 70 varieties here. The soil is in excellent condition and Cambo is running Composted – a Festival of Biodegradable Ideas until July 27. Llanerchaeron, Ceredigion Patrick Swan, Llanerchaeron's adviser, calls John Nash's Georgian two-acre creation from 1795 'a garden with its muddy boots on', because growing fruit, vegetables and flowers has been going on here for more than 200 years. The head gardener, Alex Summers, deliberately preserves 'the patina of age', because this secret garden is a nostalgic throwback to a simpler time. You're in the thick of it as soon as you go through the anonymous door. The heritage orchard contains a registered collection of Welsh apples, including 'Croen Mochyn', a russet with a name that translates as 'pig skin'. It's one of 53 varieties. Some were planted in the 1850s, and in those days there were only three walls. The gap allowed spring frosts to drift away from the blossom. There's a no-dig system for vegetables in this organically run garden, and there are plenty of colourful cut flowers tended by the gardeners and 10 willing volunteers. There are plenty of buyers among the visitors. Chartwell, Kent There aren't many walled gardens that have bricks laid by their owners, but Winston Churchill began working on Chartwell's walls between 1925 and 1932 as a form of relaxation. During his second term as prime minister, between 1951 and 1955, fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables were transported up to 10 Downing Street every week, a common occurrence for many London-based landowners. Christopher Lane, Chartwell's garden and outdoors manager, says that the one-acre vegetable garden contains traditional crops 'that could feed a British army'. Potatoes, carrots, parsnips and cabbages mingle with soft fruit and flowers, and any excess is donated to a local food bank. Part of Chartwell's charm is the contrast between the simple wildflowers in the orchard and the hectic mix of colourful flowers, fruit and vegetables within. Felbrigg Hall, Norfolk Tina Hammond Liew-Bedford, who has been the head gardener here for 26 years, was influenced by the King's organically run walled garden at Highgrove in the early 1990s. The protective high walls in Felbrigg's four-acre garden encourage pomegranates to flower and fruit on the south-facing wall. There's a rarely-seen tender California bay, also known as the headache tree or Umbellularia californica. The garden is sectioned by high inner walls, so the garden unfolds, rather like a Russian doll, adding 'mystery and suspense at every turn', according to Hammond Liew-Bedford. It's all about theatre and drama here, with handsome foliage, three-dimensional pyramidal apple trees and a walk-through pumpkin arch. Several bantam hens eat pests, including lily beetles, snails and box caterpillars, and there's always a buzz of life above the flowers. Nasturtium foliage gets devoured by cabbage white butterflies and pot marigolds are used as companion plants to deter soil-based pests. Buscot Park, Oxfordshire There's a sense of fun in this two-acre walled garden because the old-fashioned roses are planted with quirky climbing vegetables that scale the walls from late summer onwards. The green and yellow, almost reptilian 'Speckled Swan' gourds can reach a foot in length. 'It sometimes works and sometimes fails,' Lord Faringdon told me. The collection of old-fashioned roses was chosen with the expert help of the late rosarian Graham Thomas (1909-2003). The rose collection thrives on being pruned hard every year and the Portland rose Rosa 'de Rescht' is Lady Faringdon's favourite. Three more walled gardens to see Packwood House, Warwickshire One for family fun – alongside the restored kitchen garden, there's a yew garden that's perfect for games of hide-and-seek. Berrington Hall, Herefordshire The curved wall in this Capability Brown garden of 1783 has survived for centuries, almost entirely intact, and it's a unique example. Hughenden Manor, Buckinghamshire The south-facing wall of this sloping garden houses a collection of Victorian fruit, and the frost gate at the lower end helps the cold air to escape downhill.
The Guardian
31-05-2025
- General
- The Guardian
Country diary: A paradise inside four walls
Any garden is a special thing, but a walled garden? That's something truly special: an outside that is an inside. When Tara Fraser and Nigel Jones first came to view this semi-derelict Regency house in 2016, they had no idea Ashley Court included a walled garden. 'We saw this wooden door and pushed it open – and there it was. Just like The Secret Garden. Total jungle.' Nine summers and countless hours of labour later, and it is transformed. Nigel opens the door; I follow him and have to stop at the threshold as I catch sight of it. The garden is Tardis-like, bigger on the inside somehow, and bounded by high walls – stone on the outside and lined with brick – in a loose squareish shape that undulates with the lift and dip of the land. The veg beds and paths give it the feel of a patchwork coverlet laid over a sleeping giant. 'No self-respecting Victorian kitchen garden would be so ridiculously slopey,' saya Tara. It's one of the reasons why they believe the garden predates the house to before the 1800s. Not only do the high walls act as a physical barrier against deer and rabbits, they retain the heat and shelter the plants from the wind, such that the garden sits in its own microclimate. In winter, the cold air can escape through a rectangular frost window at the lower end (it pours out, apparently, like a white ghost, into the surrounding woodland). Hard to imagine on a day like this, with bees and demoiselles zipping about, buttercups shining, bathed in warm spring sunshine. Beans have begun spiralling their way up bamboo wigwams, gooseberries are as hard as marbles but growing plumper, more translucent every day. Ancient espaliered pear trees reach out to each other with gnarled fingers. Clumps of chives have gone to flower, their purple tufted hairdos like something out of Dr Seuss. Filled with all of these photosynthesisers feasting on the sun, this garden really is paradise. The word itself comes from the Avestan word pairidaēza, meaning walled enclosure. How fitting that the walled garden is both how we imagine heaven, and the very place on earth where that image took root. Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian's Country Diary, 2018-2024 is published by Guardian Faber; order at and get a 15% discount
BBC News
12-05-2025
- General
- BBC News
Cusworth Hall's Georgian walled garden restored to former glory
A restored 18th Century walled garden is to be re-opened to the public this summer after a regeneration project which has taken nearly 20 Grade I listed Cusworth Hall, near Doncaster, was built between 1740 and 1744, with the garden originally designed for growing food for the house's garden has now been planted with fruit trees and flowers, while a bowling pavilion on the site has also been Shore, parks development and conservation manager, said the project had "involved thousands of hours clearing the area - it was neglected, overgrown, full of council nursery stock trees that had been abandoned". Mr Shore, who said he had worked on the garden alongside his team since 2007, explained: "It took about two or three years to totally clear that area and thousands of hours of work for both my team and park volunteers."The orchard was planted with 50 apple trees, eight pears, some plums and cherries."Twelve of the apple varieties are traditional Yorkshire varieties and they're all bearing lovely fruit now."The fruit from the orchards would be available for families to pick on special days and plans were under way to introduce beehives that would create honey, he year, the park's flower gardens were restored, including gravel paths, box hedging, and colourful herbaceous plants and Shore said: "The planting is in its infancy, but there are already things flowering in there. There's lots to see."The work has been funded by the National Lottery, the government and the council, as well as money raised by Friends of Cusworth Hall Park and the Cusworth Hall Garden Trust. The walled garden will be open to the public for 16 open days over the summer, in a programme which started earlier this month and runs until 26 Shore said: "We used to open once, twice perhaps, every year, not even that sometimes."The flower garden generated more interest, so we opened eight times last year and this year we will open 16 times. "Going forward, hopefully that'll just keep increasing until we can open every week. That's the grand plan."The original Cusworth Hall was an Elizabethan manor in the village of Cusworth that dated back to the 14th the 1740s, William Wrightson built the Cusworth Hall that exists today, creating the walled garden in the location of the original manor building and surrounding land was purchased by Doncaster Rural District Council in 1961 and underwent extensive restoration between 2002 and 2005. Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
