Bask in the scents and colours of Calke's vibrant walled gardens. As well as being beautiful, this was a working garden, supplying fruit, vegetables and flowers to the house.
Whet your appetite with these five highlights from the garden:
Stars of the show
© Calke Abbey / National Trust
The flower garden is resplendent with colour and texture throughout the season. The intricate geometric layout of the flower garden, dominated by Chusan Palms, is a kaleidoscope of colour. The beds brim with wallflowers in spring. In summer, roses, clematis and wisteria that cling to the walls.
The flower garden is also home to an alcove with tiered shelving used to display auriculas and other potted plants – possibly the last surviving auricula theatre in Britain!
The big chill
© Calke Abbey / National Trust
Ice harvested and stored in Calke's ice-house during severe winters could, if well managed, last well beyond the following summer. You only have to experience the chill inside to believe that this could be true.
The ice-house is an unusual design, with two interconnecting 9m chambers and an access door opening onto the ponds.
The kitchen garden
© NTPL / Ian Shaw
Formerly the Physic Garden, the walled garden is now managed as a kitchen garden with sweet scents that pervade the air. Dating from the 18th century, the garden was created for the cultivation of medicinal herbs and plants. Today, it still provides fresh herbs to the restaurant in the stable block.
There are beds of globe artichokes and cardoon, as well as productive trees such as mulberry, medlar, and quince. Many old varieties of vegetables are also grown.
It’s a peach
© Calke Abbey / National Trust
The Orangery at Calke originally had two Peach Houses at either end. The 20th century saw the removal of one and the gradual slide into dilapidation of the other.
In 1999, work began to restore the remaining Peach House. Panes of glass were removed, numbered and stored whilst the rotting woodwork was replaced. The Peach House is now once again open for you to explore.
Gardener's Bothy
© NTPL / Ian Shaw
Just beyond the green door by the Peach House one stumbles across the backsheds and gardener’s yard. This row of north facing buildings was the domain of the gardeners, never visited by the family or their guests.
The ground floor of the largest building was divided into the mess room and Head Gardeners office. It was from here that all plans were hatched and records kept. Until the late 1930’s the gardens team of a dozen worked on Saturday mornings, their shift being over when each one in turn was called into the office to collect their weekly wages of between 14/- and 18/-, which had been brought from the estate office in a leather satchel.
It has been speculated that the first floor could have one time been the bothy, where single gardeners lived in simple dormitory accommodation.
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