Victorian Gardens Intro

Victorian gardens were at once a refuge for the industrious and wealthy Victorian at home, they were also a garden show piece for the dynamism of the age. Never before was so much energy devoted to the gardening craft. The Victorian age was the era of the gardening engineer, where the science and technology of the day went hand-in-hand with horticultural showmanship. Tremendous resources and money were put in to both vegetable gardens and flower gardens of all types as you will see in the ensuing pages.

This section describes and details the amazing Victorian ‘finds’ found in the garden of my own home in what was once a Victorian walled garden in the South West of England. I arrived on site having never done any gardening before, yet I was ‘hooked’ by the enormous high walls around me. I couldn’t see them, they were carpeted in ivy, but ivy doesn’t stand over 14ft high without support. I was spellbound and excited. So when my parent asked, shall we take it? “Yes” came out before I knew what was happening.

The Victorian gardens was a derelict wreck, once glorious, now long forgotten beneath decades of neglect. So we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in. My gardening experience was a blank slate and as such I had no prejudices to cloud me, no second thought that might argue “it can’t be done”. I just did.

One thing concerning my Victorian gardens discoveries was repeated time and again. No matter what was in the garden, on the walls, or in the Victorian Greenhouses, I did not find a single item that did not have at least two reasons for it to be there. Everything, had a dual purpose to be in the garden. If I found something, and considered only one use for it, that was my fault, I just hadn’t found the other reasons for it to be there. The garden walls were a case in point as you will discover. . .

Whether you are a gardener or not, like I was once, be prepare to be amazed

Now let’s begin … Victorian Walled Gardens