Capturing the hard work and beauty of kitchen gardens
“However many years she lived, Mary always felt that ‘she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow.”
Muddy boots & Green SHoots
Ever since I was small I have adored gardens of all sorts, but in particular kitchen gardens (if they are walled gardens then my heart is totally won!). As a child I was lucky enough to enjoy pottering amongst my grandparents’ and parents’ gardens, the orchards they lovingly planted and tended, and the abundance of vegetables that were grown.
“At the end of the day, your feet should be dirty, your hair should be messy and your eyes sparkling." -Shanti
I learned to love the exasperations of these keen gardeners – the laments over the abundance of caterpillars that season, or the voracious wood pigeons that would somehow manage to consume every little green shoot in sight, or the cries for rain during some endless hot summers and hosepipe bans. Equally so the spoils of their endeavours – the fresh peas straight from the pods (is there anything sweeter or more delicious?), the tiny cherry tomatoes ripe from the vine. Even the endless courgettes that my mother grew each year I had a certain fondness for (even as my father longed for the end of the ‘everything with courgettes’ season).
The wood pigeons would waddle drunkenly after devouring fallen fermented apples in the autumn, and we would gather more apples than we could ever eat. Instead enjoying them in apple sauce and pies, combined with any fruit we could prevent the birds from decimating – blackcurrants, blackberries, raspberries, logan berries - I don’t think there were many berries we weren’t lucky enough to enjoy.
My own vegetable growing has been in contrast far less ambitious in scale and in execution (fennel, garlic and onions being some of my few small triumphs), I seem to have better luck with my flower growing. However, I do sill yearn for the next house we buy to have a little (walled) kitchen garden where I can tend to a multitude of fragrant herbs, to construct neat rows of peas and bean canes, and of course to cover the ground with courgettes… to enjoy a little potting shed and greenhouse to accommodate my ever-growing seed collection. And I’ve no doubt that I too will be mumbling about caterpillars and decrying the latest mouse infestation amongst my seedlings – and so the gardeners’ tales will be repeated and passed down, generation to generation…
Until then, I shall continue to enjoy my frequent visits to National Trust properties, and linger in their gardens, admiring the hard work and beauty of those neat rows, the warm brick and stone walls framing the produce so lovingly cared for. And ponder my ultimate kitchen garden design in my mind…
Photographs taken by Kate Cullen at Baddesley Clinton (National Trust), May 2022
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