Trengwainton is Cornish for ‘the settlement of spring’, which is a beautifully descriptive name. The gardens enjoy a particularly mild climate, near Land’s End, overlooking Mount’s Bay and the Lizard Peninsula on the southern coast of Cornwall.
Due to the exceptionally mild climate in west Penwith, a result of the warming effects of the Gulf Stream, Trengwainton Gardens rarely experience a harsh winter. This region’s micro climate enables these Cornish gardeners to grow varieties of tender shrubs and exotic trees that wouldn’t survive outside all year round in most other areas of the British Isles.
Of the 25 acres at Trengwainton Gardens and the glorious spring displays of magnolias, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias that I enjoyed on our visit, the restored walled kitchen garden was my favourite garden within a garden.
So given the gentle climate of this region, it seems ironic that the walled kitchen garden was built with unique raised sloping beds to catch the warm sun in the early nineteenth century.
There was a reason for this however. During much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there had been a Little Ice Age – think of the famous Frost Fairs on the River Thames, as described by Pepys in his diaries.
When Sir Rose Price bought Trengwainton in the early nineteenth century, he created much of the garden we see today, including the walled kitchen garden. The warmer climate which had followed the Little Ice Age, had changed a few years earlier, bringing several harsh winters, and many people feared that the cold weather had returned. His building of the sloping raised beds meant that the fruit and vegetable crops, particularly the early crops would be less likely to be damaged by frost.
Avocado tree
To make them even more sheltered and virtually frost free, the Tregwainton walled kitchen gardens are bordered by brick, rather than local stone. Brick was more expensive than the local stone; and there were no local brickworks, so the raw materials were brought from Somerset and a kiln set up near the gardens. However, brick walls retain heat better than stone walls do, so vegetables could be planted much earlier in the year and continue growing later in the season. It also means that the walled gardens can support tender varieties of plants not viable under normal outside growing conditions.
As it happened, Price needn’t have worried. Modern research suggests that the harsh winters were a result of the ash cloud following the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. This volcanic eruption was one of the most powerful in recorded history and affected the climate, causing extreme weather, including the Year without a Summer.
The five sections of the kitchen garden were built to the dimensions of Noah’s Ark. This makes them 300 cubits long and 50 cubits wide. The cubit is an ancient unit of measurement based on the length of the forearm from the middle finger tip to the elbow; generally considered to be about 17 inches or 46cm.
The unique sloping beds are gradually being brought back into production. These days, fruit and vegetables are cultivated using organic principles, including the use of green manures. These will protect the soil overwinter and provide nutrients when dug into the vegetable beds in the spring.
Green Manure, Red Clover
Community involvement is encouraged in one section with local schools and groups being shown how to grow their own vegetables by the National Trust gardeners. Passing on gardening techniques in this way helps to enthuse the next generation not only to eat the food they’ve grown, but to garden for themselves and for the wildlife around us, such as pollinating insects.
The original vegetable gardens, possibly dating from the sixteenth century when the earlier house was built, now contain an exciting collection of trees, shrubs and plants form around the world. Many of the plants in the five sections of the lower walled garden have come from Plant hunting expeditions, some of which Lieutenant Colonel Edward Bolitho helped fund. This later owner of Trengwainton was instrumental in nurturing in his sheltered walled gardens many of the tender plant species which were brought to him as seeds. Helped, of course by his head gardener, G.W. Thomas, after whom the Middle Walled Garden was originally named.
With plants from New Zealand, Chile, Japan, China, and the Canary Islands, there are many treasures. Including Magnolia x veitchii ’Peter Veitch’, which was in flower when we visited in April, and the Wollemi Pine.
And I’ve hardly had chance to mention the World War 2 ‘Dig for Victory’ mini garden in the orchard, near the hens. This is to remind us that large gardens like Trengwainton played their part in keeping the country fed, by ripping up tennis courts and planting potatoes and peas instead.
In fact, I think I’ll just go back and pay another visit. Perhaps to see the gardens lit up for Christmas or in full fruit and vegetable harvest splendour in early autumn…
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