The Walled Kitchen Garden
The Kitchen Garden wall is said to be the finest and most complete produce garden wall made of chalk cob still in use today for its original purpose. Built very high and roofed with loose tiles to put off intruders, it greatly assists te early ripening of fan-trailed fruit trees. The base of flints acts as a damp course and the walls, made of a mixture of chalk and straw 'puddled' by oxen or horses, were built up in layers as each dried out.
Contained within these giant walls bedecked with ancient fan trained peach and pear trees, you will find a beautiful herb garden, rose arbour, avenue of old apple trees, peony walk, fruit cages with strawberries, red & white raspberries, asparagus beds, neat row upon row of succulent vegetables, and sweetpeas elegantly entwining their way up their bamboo canes.
On the east wall of the garden is an especially notable espalier per - Uvedale St. Germain - with a span of over forty feet! In autumn it is well worth a visit to sample the many varieties of apple which cannot be found on supermarket shelves.
Houghton Lodge's Kitchen Garden is an active garden supplying organically-grown vegetables and produce for th household, much as it has always done since the house was built when, to feed a large household was necessity.
