From its iconic Dry Garden to exciting new features, our Essex garden goes from strength to strength. From its iconic Dry Garden to exciting new features, our Essex garden goes from strength to strength.

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Global Growth Vegetable Garden

The original garden boundaries were breached in 2017 to create the Global Growth Vegetable Garden. Its beds are arranged around a central octagonal glasshouse, manufactured by Hartley Botanic, where less hardy plants are grown.

Looking its best in...

Spring Look out for early crops emerging such as rhubarb
Summer Discover cucamelon, wonderberry, aubergines, melons and agretti
Autumn Pumpkins, squashes, yacon,oca, sweet potatoes, chillies are at their best
Winter Some of the winter brassicas can still be enjoyed, as well as the winter salads in the glasshouse

Plants of different origin

Designed by Suffolk-based garden and landscape designer Xa Tollemache, this garden is set out in a circular design to represent the globe, and split into four quarters to showcase plants of different origin: Europe and the Middle East, Asia, North and Central America, and South America. At the centre of the garden is a bespoke 14m (46ft) wide octagonal glasshouse, donated by Hartley Botanic, in which less hardy edibles are grown.

Transforming the site

Construction of the garden began in January 2016 with curved beds surrounded by metal-edged Italian porphyry stone paths. The mounds around the edge of the garden are home to a range of trees and shrubs as well as those with an edible quality. The cobnuts and sweet chestnuts planted here will help add maturity to the garden as the crowns develop. Around the southern edge of the garden, an orchard is being developed to showcase the county’s heritage varieties of fruit trees.

Challenging conventional allotments

The Global Growth Vegetable Garden, supported by Witan Investment Trust, is an educational space, incorporating crops that are not generally associated with food in the UK. Traditional varieties are being grown alongside new, exciting and rare edible plants, challenging perceptions of conventional allotments. South American root crops include yacon and yam. Other intriguing crops are Cyperus esculentus (tiger nuts), with coconut-flavoured edible tubers, and Decaisnea fargesii, commonly known as the blue bean shrub due to its curious seed pods.

From plot to plate

As a direct result of this garden, Hyde Hall’s audience has become more diverse, and it has helped to enrich the knowledge of how different food types are cooked and used in other cultures. Where possible, the garden’s produce is used in Hyde Hall’s restaurant.

You may also be interested in...

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The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.