This walled kitchen garden was once a thriving vegetable garden supplying produce for the house. Apparently at one time cauliflowers grown in the garden were sent up on the train from Moretonhampstead to London for the owners when they were staying in their London residence.
The walled kitchen garden at St Olaves
The previous owners planted two apricots (Jennycot and Bergecot) and a Peach tree (Avalon pride) against the high south-facing wall. We have added a pear and a quince. Here there are still the remnants of the apparatus used to shelter tender plants.
Much of the Eastern end of the garden is raised beds and a small greenhouse, with lots of aromatic plants and herbs. The plan is to restore this area to a more productive vegetable plot and to increase the number of beds and experiment with 'Hugelcultur'. Winter mustards did well in the cold frame over in our first winter, and the garlic and broadbeans sown in October were also a great success. Over winter we created four new vegetable beds, and have since enjoyed impressive crops of beans, mange tout and courgettes, although the potatoes have been more hit and miss thanks to the prolonged drought.
One of the early tasks was to tidy up the fruit cage, which has summer raspberries, thornless blackberries and tayberries, which had all got a bit out of hand. Joe was great at helping with this back in August 2017. We have now added a very productive Gooseberry bush, and some autumn fruiting raspberries are now thriving just outside the fruit cage, and in 2023 were still cropping in November.