Kitchen Garden Notes – Flowers in The Walled Kitchen Garden, Clumber Park

ANNOUCEMENT: This week's Kitchen Garden Notes will not feature any fruit or vegetables.

Yes folks, it's true not a single snap of an apple, apricot or pear. No cabbages, courgettes or kale either. So how can I get away with calling it 'Kitchen Garden Notes'? These are all photographs I took the other the week in The Walled Kitchen Garden at Clumber Park. A walled kitchen garden was designed to provide fruit, vegetables, herbs and cut flowers for the main house of an estate. It's not surprising then that the herbaceous borders at Clumber are filled with dahlias, chrysanthemums, gladioli and Japanese anemones.

The original cut flower garden at Clumber was planted with a red, white and blue colour scheme. These being the crest colours of the owner the Duke of Newcastle. There is still an area with this planting scheme. However the main flower focus is now on the herbaceous borders and the geraniums in the glasshouse. The herbaceous border is in three sections. Flowers at the bottom are white and pastel colours, in the middle brighter with yellows and finally at the top hot reds.

From now on I'll let the flowers do the talking and I promise I've got some fruit and vegetables for you next week!