In Praise of Walled Gardens

In honour of National Pollinator Awareness Week, I'm sharing some photos from my recent visit to the walled garden at Coughton Court in Alcester, which is near to Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire.

In past times, walled gardens were a feature of bigger houses, to produce food for the residents.  Enveloped by high brick walls, they were warm and sheltered places which held the heat and temperatures would have been a few degrees higher than outside, allowing for a greater range of plants to be grown (fruit, vegetables and cutting flowers) and for a longer season too.  Some gardens even had walls that were heated with internal hot water pipes. 

Walled gardens are lovely places in which to just wander around, or to sit and just enjoy the calm, nurturing effect they seem to have, as the walls wrap around and seem to protect the garden and all it contains from the troubles of the outside world.

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