Historic kitchen gardens - history, use and care
For centuries, kitchen gardens were an indispensable source of produce for the kitchens of manors or monasteries, for confectioneries and pharmacies. Today, this traditional garden culture has often been forgotten. The german "KÜCHENGARTEN" network dedicates itself to researching and revitalising such gardens. This association of experts and committed amateurs from all over Germany is also endeavouring to replant historical useful and medicinal plants. Today, the historical kitchen gardens appear as "magical places" with their characteristic synthesis of usefulness and ornamentality. The kitchen gardes which still exist or have been restored enchant visitors with a wide variety of plants and historical cultivation techniques. The 18th-century court garden at the summer residence in Veitshöchheim (Franconia, Germany) is a good example of the integration of useful plant cultures into a formal, representative pleasure garden. The famous "Potager du Roi" in Versailles instead exemplifies the classical kitchen garden, separated by walls from the pleasure garden. The layout and equipment of kitchen gardens generally result from the requirements that are essential for the successful cultivation of crops. This is reflected, among other things, in their location in the terrain, their often regular layout and the various types of enclosures. All facilities are designed for simple, systematic and effective cultivation of the gardens and at the same time the traditionally regular structure fulfils the requirements of beauty and ornamentation. The variety of equipment and water supply elements, the glasshouses or hotbeds, the trellises and usually also a gardener's house as well as sheds and cellars for storage show the complexity of the facilities and how closely everything interlocked. Not in al instances all of the facilities have survived, therefore the lecture will draw on numerous examples from European countries and on historical sources in order to convey as vivid a picture as possible of historical kitchen gardens and the crops cultivated in them.
For more information see Studium Generale 2025.
