Kitchen garden
I'm Chris Hitchcock (left in the photo), head gardener at Painswick Rococo Garden in Gloucestershire, and I co-ordinate the running of our traditional Kitchen Garden. Shelley Beaumont and Tim Barker help in this area. We are supported by garden volunteers and groups.
The Kitchen Garden dates back to the 1740s. I like to reflect this in the choice of heritage crops. We also grow modern varieties of vegetables, and salads and herbs for the restaurant to use.
As autumn is now here, we have harvested the last of the squashes, before the first frosts, which can come early, in the Rococo Garden at 850ft above sea level. Read more...
After pruning the espaliers in July/August the fruit has ripened nicely. This month we have been harvesting the autumn produce. Read more...
We have recently finished the late summer pruning of the 120 heritage varieties of espalier-trained pears and apples. Read more...
This month, the gardeners – Tim & Shelley– have been lifting the first early/second early potatoes. Read more...
This month after weeding the squash/pumpkin borders I topped up the existing surface woodchip, with another mulch layer of woodchip, compost, and leaf mould. Read more...
This month we have continued mulching the borders for the mid-season crops. With the help of volunteers we forked over, weeded and raked borders ready for planting out or direct sowing. Read more. . .
We have been planting out potatoes this month. We have two borders set aside for potatoes, to separate the modern from the heritage varieties. Read more. . .
This month, in the drier weather, I've been forking over the borders, weeding, raking and removing the surface stones – with the help of our garden volunteers. Read more...
We've placed our order for seeds, onion sets and seed potatoes and have started drawing up our planting plans. Read more. . .