Gardens the Medieval Way
Can You Believe Our Boy Albertus Tried To Describe the Ideal Garden?
And I almost went hunting for the darn book, like the Summa Zoologica hadn’t taught me better.
Michael Brown’s ‘A Guide To Medieval Gardens: Gardens in the Age of Chivalry’ is an interesting blend of academic and experimental archeology. He and his medievalist buddies started recreating medieval gardens at an old English castle because they felt medieval gardening, both kitchen and pleasure, were understudied. This led them to do things like make rakes with wooden tines, coppice beech trees, grow parsley, and make tree benches.
Since I don’t know a darn thing about gardening, I read the book that resulted from his work.
The most salient traits to know are:
- Raised beds are period, especially ones with wicker lining. Flowerpots were in, too.
- Turf benches and fountains were mandatory, especially for Mr. King Bees Magnus.
- Pergolas were a status symbol, since ladies could promenade in them without exposing their lily-white skin to the sun.
- Topiary was basically out, except the three-tiered box shape.
- Did you know that steel that isn’t tempered correctly will break in the soil? I didn’t. It’s why old shovels were made out of single blocks of wood. Given that our cheap shovel heads pop off their handles, our ancestors might have been on to something. Brown also suggested that the shovels and spades were made of wood because people had thin shoes and pushing down on a metal blade with their feet all day would hurt.
- Weeding forks are a more recent invention. Since I didn’t know what those were, I was unsurprised.
- Ropes were more expensive than thin birch branches for trellising plants like grape vines and roses.
- They used aconite mixed with breadcrumbs to eliminate pests, though sometimes a bishop was moved to excommunicate caterpillars when they infested an area. This strikes me as the definition of self-centeredness: the bishop cares about excommunication so he assumes caterpillars do too.
- There were drop-traps for mammalian vermin. I could have done without descriptions of rat traps and squashing moles. I like moles and rats more than I like people.
Applications:
At some point, I’m going to have to read up on more gardening and medieval building practices since Karl is going to remodel Trier. Trier Castle needs an overhaul after decades of neglect and his kitty, Nebella, needs her own queening room. (Nebbi is a lady-cat, and every lady must have her bower.)
In Other News:
I’ve been thinking of putting my latest story up here. It is relatively short and could be cut into readable chunks. I don’t want to break anyone’s bank account- you could read chapters at a time or go into incognito mode. It’s just the sort of simple, straightforward murder mystery that can be accommodated by serial publication. Perhaps I’m nuts though.
Anyway, check out my site at:
And happy gardening!