Jemima’s Kitchen Garden
28 July 2020 / Lifestyle / Food and Drink / Garden /
After months of hard work from our Head Gardener, Tash Geldenhuys, and our Gardens Supervisor, Abby Evans, Jemima’s Kitchen Garden is now complete and the transformation of this corner of the Walled Garden is incredible.
As well as looking wildly beautiful, it provides endless homegrown fruit, veg and herbs for our chefs, ensuring we grow as much of our own produce as possible. It’s made up of four quadrants including an amphitheatre sitting area for guests, trailing hops for our beer and a flow bee hive for honey on tap, making the garden more bee-friendly. South-facing fig trees provide shade for ponds in copper baths, each teeming with watercress, water mint, Lotus and Arrowheads that also provide a home for dragonflies and frogs for controlling pests.
Take a look at our gallery of photos and be blown away.
A sneak peek...
Abby, who designed and worked on building the garden says: “We both feel a huge sense of accomplishment, being part of the project from beginning to end. We have been able to see our designs on paper transform into real life and be part of the constant evolution of this garden. This is most definitely an accumulation of our passion, love and hard work and we feel so grateful to have been given the opportunity and freedom to express this within the project.”
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This is one of Abby’s favourite sections of the garden, “Here we have our wildlife pond that Tash and I decided to dig on one of the hottest days! We also have an old copper tub that contains our aquatic edible plants. This section will provide shelter for birds, homes for beneficial insects such as dragonflies and hopefully a spawning place for frogs and other predatory animals. This will help with keeping the natural balance and lowering pests in the garden. On the structures to the left we will be training figs, this should help to cast more shade on the pond and due to the south facing aspect, we should be awarded with ripe figs for years to come.”
A sneak peek...
At the back of this photo, you’ll see an old telegraph pole that was found at The Grove, believed to be from WW2. Our Gardens team heaved this pole and secured it in the Walled Garden to be used as a tall feature for the Hops to climb up.
This section is designed as an example for anyone interested in creating their own mixed garden. You’ll find a mix of edible, perennial, annual, herbal and medicinal plants, we have a herbal tea section at one end that the chefs and bar staff make use of. Abby explains, “the mixed planting co-insides with our permaculture inspired ethos that you do not necessarily need to plant rows upon rows of monoculture for an edible garden, but in fact you can completely mix it up for a diverse polyculture that will attract beneficial and pollinating insects, and some plants will have a symbiotic relationship to others for a healthy garden.”
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There are two greenhouses in the kitchen garden. The smaller of the two is our chilli house, however this year our team have been experimenting with different heat-loving edibles such as malabar spinach, melon, ginger and okra. The large greenhouse is the tomato house where you’ll find many different cordon varieties; we also have aubergine growing in the same way too.
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The plant that grows over the pergola is Hops, we grow 4 different varieties which have slightly different maturing times. The hops are picked in the autumn when the flowers are ripe and brewed into The Grove beer.
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This section was actually built a few years ago but was incorporated into the new garden. The moon gates are used for growing climbing edibles which we change every two years or so in crop rotation. This year we are attempting to grow ‘Uchiki Kuri’ squash to make for an interesting archway for guests to enjoy. In the background you can see one of the many cloches that we use for crop protection on certain edibles, each year we will cover them with insect mesh that we will reuse year upon year to help control the pests.
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Colourful flowers in full bloom.
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The Potting Shed sits just behind the vibrant garden.
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Stacks of logs create the winding pathway that lead you into the garden.
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Get some inspiration for your garden at home.
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It’s not just flowers, there’s courgettes, radishes, a range of herbs and much, much more.
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Our photos don’t do justice just how beautiful the garden is. If you spot one of our gardeners during your visit, be sure to ask them any questions you may have, they will be happy to share their inspiration.
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