The Walled Garden

The Walled Gardens, originally designed by Capability Brown in 1757, had been the kitchen gardens for Longleat. In the old days 32 gardeners worked there and a cart took fresh produce and cut flowers to the house every day. Later, the produce was sold at Bristol Market and, rumour has it, the market did not start until the ‘Longleat Lorry’ arrived. The garden was famous for its peaches and melons and the beautiful vine-house that sadly had to be pulled down several years ago.

For various reasons the garden had been neglected for many years and we began restoration in 2001. Though there is still much work to be done we have made a great deal of progress. It is a very exciting project and the nursery is set in the most idyllic surroundings.

The Garden is divided into two. The first is part walled and contains two massive glasshouses and numerous buildings set against the walls. This first area was where the propagation took place. There were even more glasshouses, a peach house and cold frames. Peaches and nectarines were trained against the walls and today you can still see the name plaques on the walls showing varieties which probably do not exist today.

When we arrived ivy covered the walls and grew through the windows of the buildings, which were filled with junk from floor to ceiling. It took many skips to clear them and several gallons of paint to transform them into rooms suitable for a seed-packing room, office and shop, where seeds from our range are on display.

The borders are now planted with perennials, all grown on site from seed. We now have 31 raised beds for growing and trialling vegetables and cutting flowers, where many of the varieties in our catalogue can be seen.

The second garden is huge and fully walled, this will be tackled later.