W  alled gardens have been cultivated throughout history, from the courtyard gardens of ancient Mesopotamia to the grand country houses of pre-war Britain. While today we tend to think of them as planted for aesthetic appeal, traditionally the walled garden acted as a kitchen larder and was filled with produce for use in the Big House – think more Mr McGregor’s garden stocked with tempting salad crops in Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of Peter Rabbit than the rose-filled secret garden in Frances Hodgson Burnett’s eponymous children’s classic. That is not to say that beauty can’t be found in a kitchen garden – they can be as much a feast for the eyes as for the tastebuds, something the famous potager decorative at the Château de Villandry in the Loire Valley proves. Walled gardens have long captured the popular imagination. As spaces of seclusion, they invoke a sense of mystery and romance as their high walls sequester those inside from prying eyes. So much so, in fact, that in 1583 outraged pamphleteer Philip Stubbs warned that ‘filthie persons’ were taking advantage of the privacy afforded by walled gardens by using them for illicit trysts with their ‘paramours’. While concealment might have been a fringe benefit of the design, it was not the primary function of the walls. Rather, by enclosing the beds within, the stone walls offer shelter from the wind and create a microclimate as the stone absorbs heat from the sun through the day, which is then radiated out through the night, raising the temperature within the garden and subsequently extending the growing season. Some gardens were even built with hollow walls so hot air from a furnace could be circulated through them. For many of Britain’s historic country houses, their walled gardens were the jewel in their epicurean crown. Sadly, in the post-war period, which saw the dissolution of the class system and end of the Big House era, many historic walled kitchen-gardens fell into disrepair. In recent – 17 – Victoria Connor delves into the fantasy and function of walled gardens ILLUSTRATION Ryn Frank SECRET GAR D E N pic credit Head chef Lindsay Mackay gathers produce from the garden to use in the castle’s kitchen – 1 6 – D E S I G N