Bowles garden restored
1 April 2011
The first phase of an ambitious restoration project to revive the Victorian garden once tended by plantsman E. A. Bowles at Myddelton House in Enfield, Middlesex, is being unveiled to the public from this month after two years of painstaking renovation work.
The unusual triangular walled kitchen garden is opening for the first time in its history, with the Victorian potting shed and cold frames originally used by Bowles returned to their original condition. It's hoped the coldframes will eventually house a duplicate National Collection® of Crocus chrysantha and C. biflora – both species which E. A. Bowles used extensively in his breeding work.
Also fully restored is a peach house, reduced to little more than a wall before head gardener Andrew Turvey and his staff uncovered the original foundations, including a dipping pool and vent openings. Now reconstructed with low maintenance powder-coated aluminium in place of Victorian iron – what Andrew calls 'a modern take on Victorian style' – it has been planted with two peaches, 'Peregrine' and 'Early Rivers', and two nectarines, 'Lord Napier' and 'Humboldt', all varieties Bowles himself would have grown.
'It's very exciting times for the garden,' says Andrew. 'It's given the whole garden a massive impetus to revive itself: we've already done stuff I thought wouldn't get done until ten years down the line.'
Work is continuing on the next phases of the project, which include the restoration of a huge glasshouse range including a vine house, hothouse and cold sunken glasshouse.
The garden at Myddelton House is open daily from 10am to 4.30pm.