We run a range of garden events and activities around the UK for walled kitchen garden enthusiasts.
FORUM 2017
THIS YEAR OUR FORUM WILL BE HELD AT WEST DEAN GARDENS, WEST DEAN, SUSSEX, ON 23RD AND 24TH SEPTEMBER. Details to follow.
Events & Training
FORUM 2016
This year we’ll take the High Road to Dumfries House in Scotland so please make a note of the date. . . October the 8th and 9th. The Theme is Community Gardening The registration form will be available soon so keep an eye on The Grapevine for more details!
3rd & 4th October
Forum 2015
Croome, Worcestershire
Forum 2015 was held at Croome Court. The lectures were held in the newly restored Long Room with lunch and garden tours in Chris and Karin Cronin’s lovely adjoining walled garden.
5th October 2013
Forum 2013
Attingham Park
FORUM 2013 OCTOBER 5TH ATTINGHAM PARK, SHROPSHIRE The forum 2013 was held at Attingham Park in Shropshire on the 5th October 2013. Attingham is a National Trust property, where there is a large walled garden (just under two acres) and a smaller frame-yard with working glasshouses, back-sheds and bothy. This is an on-going restoration project, which has so far brought three of the quarters of the garden back into full productivity
6th and 7th October
Forum 2012
Helmingham Hall
WKGN FORUM 2012. 6th & 7th OCTOBER AT HELMINGHAM HALL, SUFFOLK The weekend Forum in Suffolk was a great success. The talks took place at Helmingham Hall on the Saturday, followed by garden visits the following day. Once again we were blessed by wonderful weather.
Forum 2011
Theme: Publicly owned walled kitchen gardens Sixty delegates and speakers from the length and breadth of the country, and offshore islands, were welcomed to the 2011 Forum by Susan Campbell and Fiona Grant, founders of WKGN, on what turned out to be the hottest October day on record. The speakers represented a range of different projects taking place in walled kitchen gardens owned by local authorities John Isaacs was once a head master, a role that now stands him in good stead for his current position as Chair of the Insole Court Community Garden Group. Insole Court was once an extensive mansion built by James Harvey Insole, from wealth… Read more »
24th & 25th September
Forum 2010
Scottish Borders
Image above taken in the garden at Mertoun. This year we have chosen to have our annual Forum in the Scottish Borders. We feel that a visit is long overdue; the region is renowned for its wealth of fine walled kitchen gardens and for the skill of its gardeners, as well as for many splendid varieties of fruit and vegetables which, as their names reveal, have been raised north of the border. The area is also rich in glasshouses (in various states of repair), most of them having been made by one of Scotland’s most prolific and prestigious manufacturers, Mackenzie and Moncur of Edinburgh. The Forum will take place over… Read more »
16th October 2009
Forum 2009
Hampton Court Palace
THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM AT HAMPTON COURT PALACE. Our first venture at making links with productive walled gardens in Europe was a great success, with over 100 delegates, and an excellent range of speakers from Belgium, France, Germany, and the UK. Outside the Palace A group of delegates in the Privy Garden Two of the speakers were Herman van den Bossch who spoke on‘The Museum Garden at Castle Gaasbeek: the making and keeping of a living laboratory’ and Dr. Kristin Püttmann, who spoke on ‘A Little Bit of Britain – two late 18th century walled kitchen gardens in Northern Germany’
October
Forum 2008
Croxteth Hall, Liverpool
FORUM 2008 ‘Back to the Roots’- Profit from Produce Liverpool is the Capital of Culture 2008, so this year we have chosen Liverpool’s Croxteth Hall as our venue, where the Victorian walled garden is now owned by the council and continues to flourish and produce fruit, flowers and vegetables. The theme of this Forum is to investigate viable new roles for walled kitchen gardens in the 21st century.These gardens were, of course, once intensely productive places, providing their owners with fresh fruit and vegetables all the year round, but now they often have to pay they way. With the threat of climate change, the rising price of food and the… Read more »