The online forum for the Walled Kitchen Gardens Network with all the latest news, events and musings.
A Career in Horticulture
Know someone who’s interested in making a career in gardening in historic gardens, who has a little horticultural experience and possibly some RHS exams behind them? Then maybe the 3 year full time Professional Gardeners Guild traineeship might be for them. Information and an application form are on the Professional Gardeners Guild website. A career in horticulture is a marvellous thing! Please spread the word. Thanks.
A Lockdown Puzzle. Phil needs your ideas. . . .
Phil and Serena bought what was the slips garden and gardener’s cottage belonging to the Marchwood Estate a few years ago. Their plans to excavate what appear to be glasshouses have been put on hold due to the arrival of two new family members. So Phil thought he might just be able to interest any bored WKGN members in working out exactly what they have found. . . . Please send any ideas to the comments section below.
The First European Symposium on Kitchen Gardens – news and updates
We have now completed the first 3 meetings of the Symposium, the forth to follow on the 8th April 2021. There are in excess of 250 participants, including two from as far away as Russia! Since our first meeting in October, the live interpretation has been going well. We are learning to avoid presentations containing video for example because the huge variability in broadband across Europe gives poor results. As we all get better at using Zoom we are taking advantage of the flexibility in the technology to run each meeting. Following a focussed introduction from Susan Campbell, we had three brilliant guest speakers for the December meeting. Hermann van… Read more »
Foster and Pearson span greenhouse (NO LONGER) available.
I THINK THAT BY NOW THE GREENHOUSE HAS FOUND A NEW HOME, I HAVE NOT HEARD ANYTHING FROM THE OWNER’s AGENT AFTER FORWARDING ALL YOUR QUERIES. PLEASE DON’T GET YOUR HOPES UP, I SHALL NOT BE PASSING ON ANY FURTHER QUERIES. Please note, all queries received about this greenhouse have been forwarded to the agent. She has not yet had an answer from the client as to what they propose to do. As soon as I know I will publish the information. Thanks for your patience and understanding. This (approx 10metre) greenhouse has recently been dismantled and the owner would like to hear from anyone interested in acquiring it. It’s… Read more »
The First European Symposium on Kitchen Gardens
It was a friendly and fruitful gathering of kitchen garden enthusiasts who took part in what was for many, a new kind of symposium. Meeting and greeting many of the participants, some from as far as the USA, along with short descriptions of upcoming presentations left us with a sense of anticipation and excitement at the prospect of being part of a new European network. (In this first Zoom webinar, video sound suffered as did the live translation but this is something to be rectified before the next session on December 17th) Susan Campbell knew from the outset she would not be at the proposed meeting at Chambord and so… Read more »
Thursday the 15th is almost here!
Registration numbers for our virtual seminar are fast approaching 200 with representatives from France, the Uk, Sweden, Holland, Belgium, Switzerland, Ireland, Germany and the USA. Whatever your interest in Kitchen Gardens of all kinds and all states of repair or production, you are bound to find kindred spirits attending the Zoom seminars to be held over this winter. It is a great opportunity to meet those in the know and not only learn but also have an opportunity to have your questions answered. By next spring you will find yourself part of a new European kitchen garden community when we hope to set a date for a post-COVID, old fashioned,… Read more »
Registration Form
Registration form for the European Symposium 15th October 2020
European Symposium on the conservation of historic fruit and kitchen gardens at Chambord – New organisation
Thank you for opening this update. Many of you will have been wondering whether we will be able to go ahead with the Symposium – and the answer is yes! However with the ongoing difficulties due to the Coronavirus, we have decided to take the event online. We are also hoping that many more of you will be able to join the Symposium this way. Please read on: We are extremely happy to report that the Symposium is enjoying a great response – we already exceed 100 participants. The issue though is that people living outside France are hesitant to commit themselves to travelling to Chambord with the uncertainty surrounding… Read more »
European Symposium, Chambord and Forum 2020, Audley End
Forum 2020 – Audley End, 3rd October There is still some uncertainty about the possibility of our Forum taking place at Audley End this year, and so we have decided with them to postpone it until some time next year, 2021 But the good news is that an equivalent event, a European Symposium on Kitchen Gardens, organised by The Walled Kitchen Garden Network in conjunction with Les Potagers du France and Les Amis du Potager de Roi is definitely taking place at Chambord in France on the 15th and 16th of October, this year. Contributors include our old friends Jim and Sarah, talking about West Dean, and Chris and Karen,… Read more »
Doveridge Walled Garden
James Deville contacted The Grapevine with some thoughts about gardening during Lockdown . . . . . See more on their Facebook page Doveridge Walled Garden. It just seems a good time for walled garden owners to post anything they feel at the moment as we are so lucky to have the space and opportunity to make the most of our forced time off from our day jobs. We have done so much to our garden over the past three weeks in that we’ve made our garden our full time jobs completing many tasks that would be virtually impossible in our normal available time along with more setting than would… Read more »