The walled kitchen garden at Clumber Park

Looking up a path to the glasshouse with plant borders down each side — Winter in the walled kitchen garden at Clumber Park | © Jon Scrimshaw

Spanning four acres, the walled kitchen garden at Clumber Park is one of the grandest surviving 18th century walled gardens in England.

The history of the garden

Originally home to the Dukes of Newcastle, Clumber Park is steeped in history with clues to its grand past dotted throughout, including this spectacular enclosed garden. Dating from 1772, it supplied the sorts of exotic and unusual foods that the Dukes could impress their guests with. From asparagus to pineapples and strawberries at Christmas, this was an elite garden for an elite family. In its prime, the gardens would have provided employment for 30 people and had 6-acres under cultivation including a huge, heated Melon Yard and an orchard, which was re-established just outside the garden walls in 2021.

The layout and techniques used

The garden itself is divided internally with a bisecting peach wall to provide extra growing space for top fruit, and two garden rooms to secure the more valuable soft fruit crops. The 15-foot walls are home to over 200 wall trained fruit including cordons, espaliers, and fans.

The Clumber gardens team practice “no dig” gardening in two large plots near the top of the garden. Each year, they provide fresh crops using organic principles for use in the park's food and beverage outlets, and for sale on the well-stocked produce cart. All generating much needed funds from visitor donations.

The gardens now have a mixture of productive and ornamental plantings and is home to two national collections of Rheum (Rhubarb) and Malus (Apple).

View across the garden borders and apples trees in the walled kitchen garden — View across the walled kitchen garden | © Jon Scrimshaw

The garden is landscaped to encourage cold air and frost to roll from the flanks into the centre of the garden and then down a central slope through metal gates at the lowest point of the garden. This leads onto the impressive Cedar Avenue, which is underplanted with 140,000 spring flowering bulbs, creating a spectacular blanket of colour in the spring months.

The Glasshouse

At 451 feet, Clumber Park boasts the longest Glasshouse in National Trust care. It was installed by the 7th Duke of Newcastle and completed in 1910. By the 1970s it was derelict but the Trust has spent decades restoring it, most recently in 2023. Today, it boasts seasonal displays in its huge conservatory, an exotically planted Palm House and bays of grapes, figs, and peaches. Some of the utility rooms now serve as a museum displaying an extensive collection of gardening tools. The Apple Store and the Gardener's Mess is a feast for the eyes with ever-changing displays.

Highlights of the garden

Herb border

Combining herbs grown for the cafe alongside dianthus, the latter a homage to the 7th Duchess and the gardeners who grew her favourite carnations.

Rose garden

With over 40 pre-1920s varieties, it is aldo planted with bulbs, annuals and herbaceous perennials to create a display that lasts from spring to autumn.

Soft fruit garden

Home to over 50 varieties, including strawberries and raspberries.

Double herbaceous borders

At 400ft, they are the longest of their type in the National Trust's ownership.

What's happening in the garden in December?

This month the team are settling the garden down for winter. This means clearing dead and dying foliage, leaving some seed heads to give structure and for the birds. The bare bones of the kitchen garden are gradually revealed as the leaves fall, exposing the elegant shapes of the trained fruit.

Some vegetables are still in the ground to be harvested as needed. Other veg like squashes will store in a cool dry place and can be used until the end of the winter.

In the Glasshouse, the team have planted onions, pak choi and salad leaves so that we have early crops ready to sell on the produce cart in the spring, and something for visitors to see over the winter.

What’s for sale on the produce cart?

Beetroot, carrots, sprouts, potatoes, celeriac, onions, garlic and apples.

Seasonal advice from Clumber's Head Gardener

The end of the calendar year sees us finishing one growing season and setting up the next. Nothing new here for forward thinking gardeners, but we are prompted by the arrival of November frosts demanding the timely completion of certain garden tasks.

So, as Clumber peppers the squirrels with chestnuts and slips into its earthy-coloured garb, we start to bring in or protect tender plants, complete any bulb planting before the ground is frozen, and harvest any remaining vegetables that can’t be stored in the soil. Milder winters will still allow the planting of overwintering onions (aka Japanese onions), just expect to harvest them a little later.

As the leaves and flowers recede, interest in the garden is held by evergreens, colourful trunks with textured bark, berries and the skeletal tree canopies. Now is a great time to take stock, while the garden is bare bones, asking if the addition of a winter interest plant or two could offer anything for your garden.

As we approach the end of December, it’s hard not to welcome the gift of lengthening days again. The passing of the shortest day is a great reminder to get ready for the coming year.

While most of the garden is sleeping, why not set up for what’s to come; sanitising greenhouse glass, staging and pots, pruning overgrown deciduous plants, machinery maintenance, tool sharpening, and a firm favourite amongst gardeners, browsing the seed catalogue, then buying way more than we need!

While you are tucked up warm inside, please do what you can for our native wildlife. Bird feeders of various types are no-brainers, but also think about leaving the odd corner of the garden untidy for hibernating mammals, they will pay you back ten-fold when it comes to pest removal in the growing season.

Have a great festive season and a fruitful 2025.

Dene Wood

Cauliflower, beetroot, potatoes, raspberries grown in the walled kitchen garden — Produce grown in the walled kitchen garden | © Johanna Mather

Events

Walled Kitchen Garden Tour, first Tuesday of every month from March - October, 11.30 – 12.30.
As one of only a handful of its kind in existence, discover how the walled kitchen garden is maintained using traditional gardening techniques.
Meet at the entrance to the garden.

All our garden events are free to enjoy and no booking is required. Admission into the park applies.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Garden's team have answered the most common questions asked by visitors to the walled kitchen garden.

How many staff and volunteers work in the garden?
4 full time staff, 3 part time staff, 2 garden apprentices and 40-45 frequent volunteers

How many would have worked here in its heyday?
Around 30 gardeners

If you are the second largest collection of rhubarb in the world, who has first?
We understand a private collection in the Netherlands currently has the largest collection

How big are the walled gardens?
4 acres within the walls, but including the slip gardens, frame yards and historic orchards it's 6 acres.

How long are the Glasshouses?
451 feet/137.5 metres. It takes around one and a half minutes to walk at a steady pace from one end to the other. It is the largest range of glass owned by the National Trust.

What happens to the produce?
We sell our produce to visitors on the cart near the entrance gate. A weekly delivery is also made to the main café in the Turning Yard.

What happens to all the rhubarb?
From March to July we have rhubarb sticks for sale on our produce cart and it is used for seasonal recipes in the cafe. We don't pick the stalks after this time as the rhubarb needs to gather and store energy for growth. Throughout autumn and winter the rhubarb naturally dies back and will re-emerge in February at the beginning of the growing season.

What happens to all the apples?
We have around 250 apple trees at Clumber. We pick the apples in September and October. Some are sold on the produce cart, some go to the café, some are used at our annual apple celebration event. Some heritage varieties are good for storing and can be brought out to sell later during the winter.

Where are the toilets?
On the east side or the left side of the garden if looking from the main gates up to the Glasshouse.

How do I get to the nearest café (Central Bark)
Follow the path that goes east at the main gates, keeping the walled garden on your right, until you reach the woodland. Turn right (north) and walk through the trees until you get to the tarmac path and then turn right. Central Bark will be on the right.

What time is the garden open?
The garden is open every day from 10.00 - 16.00.