Garden Cottage & Walled Kitchen Garden

About Garden Cottage & Walled Kitchen Garden

This garden was originally the kitchen garden for Tysoe Manor. Two walls were built in the 1930s and some espalier apples planted. The garden then fell into neglect and was badly overgrown when the Sandersons began work in 2009. Clearing has been an immense and successful effort and has included the construction of two new walls to complete the enclosure.

Why take on a project like this? Inspiration originally came from a famous BBC TV series in 1987 – The Victorian Kitchen Garden – which recounted the restoration of a walled garden at Chilton Foliat in Wiltshire. This memorable series gave a general fillip to the restoration of other lost gardens.

We enter from the road into a small gravelled area with a lawn running down on the left and a small area of cottage-type planting by the house with balloon clipped bay tree, peonies, asters and sweet peas. Steps then lead up to a paved terrace and a view of the kitchen garden.

The kitchen garden extends to about one acre and is enclosed by walls which keep rabbits and deer at bay. It is laid out to a series of rectangular plots, with five main vegetable areas and some smaller ones. A good deal of space is also devoted to fruit, including apples and plums which the Sandersons have grafted.

The Sandersons enjoy growing exotic vegetables and heritage varieties of common vegetables, many derived from the Heritage Seed Library at Garden Organic, Ryton.

Cultivation is entirely organic. This has its price in pests but the consequences are manageable. Vegetables are rotated from season to season. Although this is not primarily an ornamental garden, there is a flower border and some mixed planting with subjects like Agapanthus, Helenium and Scabious atropurpurea ‘Beaujolais Bonnet’ which seeds itself around. This has the advantage of attracting beneficial insects like hoverflies.

A large wooden pergola has been constructed and supports various forms of the evergreen and slightly tender Clematis chirrosa from the Balearic Islands – ‘Jingle Bells’, ‘Freckles’, ‘Early Sensation’, ‘Wisley Cream’ – together with C. montana.

A line of mature apple trees were planted in 1930s and had become very big when the Sandersons took over. The trees were cut back and are now kept to size. Two have been extensively grafted with about 15 different dessert apples on each tree. They lend body and also support a reliable annual crop of mistletoe.
In 2018 part of the old wall fell down crushing half of the old espalier apple trees. Once the wall was repaired we planted replacement apples, sloping cordon style, choosing unusual varieties. In 2021 more apple trees were added by grafting, mainly heritage varieties, onto upright cordons.

Towards the north end of the site are four greenhouses. Apart from overwintering tender subjects they provide for the cultivation of peppers, tomato, aubergine, okra, and melon, among other crops.

In the same general area are a raised strawberry bed, cages for soft fruit and brassicas and further vegetable beds. There is a knot garden/parterre of Lonicera nitida with a bug hotel made from small clay pot at the centre. A carefully arranged wood store near the house is almost a thing of beauty. Pots abound, especially for hostas and aeonium. The top walls shelter productive figs and plums.

A willow fedge has been made around one of the rectangular areas and provides a windbreak and an attractive feature.

Last but not least, a sedum roof on storage sheds to the west of the garden makes an unusual and striking feature.

Here is an ongoing and ambitious project, based on firm principles and carried forward with commitment.
Recent projects include a patio area with metal work arches which support Spetchley Red vines, a raised nursery bed. A new area has been developed where the manure was housed using an organic metal design which mirrors the trees and planting in the garden. This is surrounded by a hornbeam hedge and the area, currently mulched with woodchip will become a shady area for giant hostas and acers.
The latest addition is an ornamental rill and seating area.