A Quaker Kitchen Garden - Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre

Continuing our series of blog posts on the Kitchen Garden and Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre we make our entrance:

A sign says: "You are welcome to explore the walled garden. Dating back to the 19th. Century the walled garden would have provided vegetables, herbs, fruit and flowers for a large family and their staff. The current planting plan echoes this with separate Herb, Kitchen, Fruit and Cutting Gardens providing organic food and flowers for the Study Centre and a pleasant area to stroll or sit in".

I was fascinated by the layout of this garden, especially the herb garden. Woodbrooke provides an overview:

It's a shame I had so little time. You can't read all the names on this herb 'map' but you get some idea of how many different herbs there are. Walking around - I found some unusual varieties such as Sweet Woodruff. In the first instance - I wouldn't have the foggiest idea what to use this for, but it was enlightening to find it's sometimes employed to relieve migrane see http://www.herbalcuisine.com/Sweet_Woodruff.html . Next to catch my attention was 'Coltsfoot' used in the past for cough remedies. See: http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/coltsf88.html

Alongside Rosemary I also found Yarrow. You don't see that in your average plant nursery...