Chatsworth Gardens: The Kitchen and Cutting Gardens

At last I've got around to sharing a series of blog posts of our stroll around the gardens at Chatsworth House!  

The Kitchen Gardens located on a hill behind the glasshouses are full of produce and flowers for cutting and displaying in the house.  The produce is grown by a team of professional gardeners, but visitors can still get ideas for their own garden and vegetable plot and being high up there are great views of the parkland and the clock tower of the stable block.

The Kitchen Garden has had various homes over the years and this particular site was once called The Paddocks because it used to be where the horses grazed the grass.  Further along the plot of land were the Victorian greenhouses with their intricate ironwork roof supports (still preserved and used).

The 11th Duke and Duchess, the parents of the current Duke, thought that the new enthusiasm for growing fruit and vegetables would inspire others to do the same so the land was developed during the Winters of 1991/2 and 1992/3.  Drains were laid and raised beds were built from old bricks as well as new paths.  Iron arches were installed to support the fruit trees. Now well established the Kitchen Garden is a fitting legacy that visitors can appreciate and enjoy as they wander around.

Beyond a beech hedge is a small orchard growing fruit bred in Derbyshire and next to that is another plot that has often been taken on by volunteers.  Each time we've visited there has been a different theme and this year it was 'Light and Dark' with plants that reflect this in their colouring.

The Orchard

The Light and Dark Garden was a pleasant place for daughter D to sit for a while especially as she was carrying our picnic lunch.

At the entrance to the Kitchen Garden there are some interesting structures with yew trees growing inside.  There's a giant pumpkin, an apple and a pear - all with golden stems.  They certainly have an impact on the visitor as they enter the Kitchen Gardens. Dan Pearson, the garden designer, together with the head gardener, oversaw the installations as part of a garden transformation project.  Dan's main focus has been on developing the Trout Stream Walk in recent years.  In 2015 his design was featured at the Chelsea Flower Show - there in situ and then later refashioned in the Chatsworth Gardens.  It won Best in Show at the RHS Chelsea Show.  (By the way, there are televised programmes of the 2021 Chelsea Flower Show on BBC this week.  The Show was moved from its usual month of May to September.  Exhibitors are showcasing plants that one can see growing at this time of the year).

The Trout Stream Walk.  The huge rocks that were refashioned during Dan Pearson's Project have now had time to settle in.

Unusual lettuces 

Back in the Kitchen Garden the produce looks impressive grown in regimented rows and then interspersed with flowers that act as pollinators. As well as supplying the house produce is available to buy in the stable yard or in the estate farm shops.

The gardeners were out and about and here's one of them checking his tray of seeds and with his measuring stick was probably ready to do some sowing or planting.

 

artichoke heads

                                                   

 lilies and hydrangea 'Annabelle'

This is one of the garden ornaments on the plot similar to the large diamond-shaped one that moves in the breeze.  This one was given to the late 11th Duke and Duchess by the local Rotary Club to celebrate a diamond wedding anniversary in 2001.  It's so shiny that as daughter D and I moved the bush out of the way to read the information and I took a photo it looked as if our hands are touching.  It certainly sums up our mother-daughter day out together and our love of gardening and visiting beautiful gardens.

I hope you enjoyed the walk around the Kitchen Gardens.  I'll share more of our walk next time.  Have a lovely day!