Boston Flora

Tag: Harewood House

  • Friday & Saturday, October 6 & 7 – Forum 2023: Harewood House and the Walled Kitchen Gardens of North Yorkshire

    Fancy a quick trip across the Pond? The Walled Kitchen Gardens Network is hugely pleased to announce Harewood House as our venue for 2023, with thanks to Trevor Nicholson, Head of Gardens & Grounds, and the Trustees at Harewood. The theme this year will look at the historic relationship between the Kitchen Garden and the Kitchen – a vitally important collaboration for the management of Estates and their households historically, many again recognizing and enjoying the benefits and working together.

    The first day, Friday 6th October, will be at Harewood House, where we will meet from 9 am, with talks during the morning, from our speakers; Trevor Nicholson, Steffie Shields, Claudio Bincoletto and Bent Varming. After lunch, we will spend the afternoon in the 18thC walled kitchen gardens with Trevor and his team and return to the Courtyard with time for discussions, Q&A and tea.On Saturday 7th, we will visit other  Walled Kitchen Gardens in North Yorkshire.

    Harewood sits in the heart of Yorkshire and is one of the Treasure Houses of England. The House, built during the mid-18th century, has over 50 ha (100 acres) of landscaped gardens laid out by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, set within a wider estate of over 350 ha. Trevor Nicholson oversees this landscape, including of course, the Walled Garden, which sits at the far side of the Lake. It is the oldest garden at Harewood, already under construction when building at Harewood House began in 1759. Its purpose – to provide the kitchens with the finest fresh fruit and vegetables.

    Susan Campbell writes: The kitchen garden at Harewood was designed by Lancelot Brown between the years of 1758 and 1781 for the owner, Edwin Lascelles. It is unique in that it looks like an island in the lake created by Brown, but in fact it is built on a promontory jutting into the west side. The lake was created by damming the Stank Beck that flows through the western part of the estate. A watercolor by Turner, painted in 1797, shows how well the kitchen garden melts into the wider landscape. It is also noticeable that the lake can be seen from the mansion, but not the kitchen garden. Complete registration materials can be found at www.walledgardens.net

  • Wednesday, March 22, 11:00 am – The Gardens of Harewood House, Online

    There are over 100 acres of gardens and pleasure grounds at Harewood, set within an ornamental parkland of over 1,000 acres created during the 18th century. The Gardens comprise various horticultural areas, each different in style, and containing a significant plant collection throughout. Trevor will give a brief history of the gardens before talking about the work of the gardens team over the past three decades and provide a glimpse into the future.

    The Terrace – a Victorian, Italianate formal garden, complete with C19 parterre by Sir Charles Barry, with fountains, clipped yew and box, prominent mixed flower borders and a large scale sub-tropical planting scheme.

    The Himalayan Garden – a naturalistic sunken garden with waterfall and stream, rock and bog gardens containing a thematic plant collection, including trees and shrubs, rhododendrons, and herbaceous plants from Asia.

    The Walled Garden – a traditional utilitarian garden, built in the 1750’s and divided into two parts, with a productive kitchen garden, flower borders, apple orchard and meadow.

    Trevor Nicholson has been Head Gardener at Harewood for 28 years. His horticulture career began in 1980 at Houghall College, Durham, where he trained in Horticulture and Arboriculture. At Harewood Trevor has worked continuously on the revival, conservation and development of the gardens: introducing bold new planting schemes in the formal terrace gardens, tree & shrub planting in the park, as well as the re-development of the 1930’s rock garden as a Himalayan Garden with a significant collection of Sino-Himalayan plants. Trevor also brought the Walled Garden back into production in the 1990s and is working with the executive team on its restoration and development. With the help of grants from the RHS Bursaries Committee, and support from Harewood House Trust, Trevor undertook two botanical study tours to Nepal, China and Bhutan – informing the development of the Himalayan Garden at Harewood.

    This is the fourth in a series of talks in which the speakers will introduce a variety of landscapes, gardens and themes enjoyed by Yorkshire Gardens Trust members which portray the wide diversity of designed landscapes in the 3 Yorkshire counties and the interests of the membership. Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days prior to the start of the talk, and again a few hours before the talk. A link to the recorded session (available for 1 week) will be sent shortly afterwards. £5 each or all 5 for £20 Register through Eventbrite HERE.