Jenny is aiming to restore the gardens to their former glory over the next 5 years. In their heyday, the gardens' produce went to feed the household at Maristow House.
These gardens were built for a very exclusive purpose and now it's time to take all of the good practices developed by the Victorian kitchen gardeners and use them to our advantage in the 21st century, along with new techniques, so we can get the best out of the space we have available.
This magical place is packed with opportunities to inspire & teach people to grow their own fruit, veg & flowers in a truly sustainable way.
We'll be selling produce from the gardens to fund some of the community projects planned and we'll be making jams and pickles with our glut.and lots, lots more...
Jenny Tunley Price took on the lease for the Walled Gardens from the Maristow Charitable Trust in February 2009 with the aim of restoring the gardens to full productivity (including the two Victorian glasshouses, but that’s a whole ‘nother story...)
There are nearly three acres of ground within the walls, divided into three sections, all of which looked like something the Prince in ‘Sleeping Beauty’ would have been familiar with.
With the energetic help of a committed bunch of volunteers and five Large Black pigs, slowly the gardens are coming to life.
The Japanese Knotweed in the North and South gardens prevents us from doing too much there until it is eradicated but the top slope has, after some fairly hair-raising escapades with one sort of machinery or another, finally been tamed...well, sort of.
19 different varieties of potato have been planted and sowings of brassicas, beans, salads and goodness knows what else are underway.
The Southern Garden has been largely cleared by the pigs and now we're setting to restoring the old vine house.
