In today's world of liberalism and freedom (not to mention over-zealous labour laws) it's hard to imagine running a garden or gardening business in the same strict way as Victorians ran their estates and walled vegetable gardens.
The head gardener was a much revered man who would command the utmost respect and demand military discipline that has long since been forgotten.
Most working class people went into service during the Victorian era; some within the confines of the big house and others into the gardens and woods: estates were a factor of efficiency bringing wild and farmed meat to the table, managed woodland to fuel the fires and cut flowers and fresh produce from the garden to brighten up the house and feed its privileged occupants.
I am beginning to sniff a return to traditional values; both in a sense of how we conduct ourselves as well as how we grow our gardens.
I have been rather fortunate in my career; first as an amenity gardener and latterly as a landscape gardener. I got to visit some very fine houses and gardens around southern England and I got to glimpse and sense a wonderful era of yesteryear.
A head gardener was not only a very skilled man who learnt his trade as an apprentice to fine gardeners before him, he was also a shepherd, mentor and father figure to those who worked under his command.
Many of you will remember the Victorian Kitchen garden from the 1980s - Peter Thoday and Harry Dodson share traditional Victorian gardening from the walled garden at Chilton Foliat near Hungerford in Berkshire.
Take a nostalgic look back in time and enjoy the gardening year through these ten minute snippets on You tube: although not from the Victorian era, Harry Dodson learned his gardening skills from gardeners who were, and passes on his skills to viewers in the BBC series about the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
Harry Dodson holds a little significance for me personally; not only would I have loved to have worked with him but he worked for Lord Selborne on the Blackmoor Estate, just a mile from my boyhood home.
Gardeners' World producers..please take note of how a gardening programme should be made.
The first video (above) is January in Chilton Foliat.
February in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
March in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
April in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
May in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
June in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
July in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
August in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
September in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
October in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
November in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
December in the Victorian Kitchen Garden.
Recent Comments