Arlington’s kitchen garden becomes a family veggie patch

Although Arlington Court is closed, the National Trust is still caring for the property and its impressive estate, with a little help from local families.

With most of the Trust’s staff furloughed, a small team remains to carry out essential tasks. Normally three gardeners and 20 volunteers tend to Arlington’s beautiful Victorian gardens. But with the gardening team down to just one member of staff, it became clear they would need to be creative to keep on top of Arlington’s Victorian gardens.

Normally the walled kitchen garden would be taking shape by now, with the team sowing and planting a variety of fruit and veg to be used in the tea-room and offered for sale to visitors later in the year. However, preparing the walled kitchen garden is too big a task for one gardener, so a unique plan was devised to make use of the space and bring life to the beds while Arlington is closed.

Three families live onsite at Arlington Court in staff accommodation. They have each been given a plot in the kitchen garden to work on with their families and have already started work rotavating the soil and sowing seeds. 

This is probably the first time that amateur gardeners have been given the chance to shape the garden at Arlington. The remaining gardener, Beccy Hanson, thinks it will be a surprising change for regular visitors when they are able to return.

Beccy says: “I’m expecting our walled kitchen garden to look very different this year, a family veggie patch instead of the usual ordered kitchen garden designed to feed a grand house. The garden is very sheltered and fertile, the perfect growing space, so I’m sure they will be picking and eating the rewards of their efforts very soon. It’s nice to know the garden is being tended and enjoyed by at least three families while we are closed.”

Arlington’s Visitor Operations & Experience Manager, Kate Godden and her husband Tim are tending one of the plots with their little helper, two-year-old Fernley. Kate says: “It’s such an odd time for us all right now but it’s great to have the opportunity to help out the team here and grow some of our own veggies along the way. None of us have undertaken any gardening quite like this before so it’s been a good challenge.”

You can keep in touch with Arlington on social media at facebook.com/ArlingtonCourtNT, twitter.com/NTArlington and Instagram.com/arlingtoncourtnt.