A Season on Geoff's Patch: running the Kitchen Garden at York Gate

Frightening and delighting in equal measure on the pumpkin patch is our new resident scarecrow Geoff, so named for the television gardener of yesteryear Geoffrey Smith, who is reported to have visited York Gate several times and aired some critical views on the design. Geoff has been doing an excellent job as far as I’m concerned. I was told to expect a big problem with pigeons eating the crops and to date have not seen evidence of a single one!

I started as a trainee gardener at York Gate in September 2024, and as an allotment holder I naturally had my eye on working in the kitchen garden. The best plants for me are both beautiful and useful, for example an apple tree trained in a stepover form to provide a striking feature and an abundant crop in a small space. Culinary and productive uses are of equal interest, and happily we have many examples across York Gate of willow and hazel fashioned into hurdle fencing, plant supports and ornamental effects. Below you can see some of our handiwork made of locally sourced hazel and willow.

I considered the overall goal of the kitchen garden to be one of ornamental value for visitors. This is a contrast to my usual approach on the allotment, in which crops would be selected purely for taste and reliability. For example, I sought to trial the ‘Three Sisters’ companion planting method of combining climbing beans, pumpkins, and sweetcorn ‘Glass Gem’ and ‘Bicolour’ – two purely ornamental varieties with striking red flowers. A common misgiving about applying the Three Sisters method in British climes is the tendency of the beans to outgrow the corn resulting in a tangled mess due to the limited sunshine. We have had a brilliant season in that respect with the abundant sunshine, and the sweetcorn is just about keeping up!

My secondary aim for the area is to provide the garden café with suitable produce to feature in the menu. It seems a shame to put all the considerable effort required into food production without it being used on-site. Happily the harvesting is in full swing and regular deliveries are being made to the café. Interesting crops are appearing on the menu such as tomatillo salsa verde – a Central American relative of the tomato with a more savoury flavour to complement Mexican cuisine. Today I made a delivery of my personal favourite crop the Thai sweet basil, which I am assured will be made use of in a Thai green curry style soup.

The excellent facilities at York Gate allow me the opportunity to grow plants I would not be able to do successfully at home, in the absence of a sunny greenhouse. We have an impressive crop of aubergines coming on in the greenhouse, hopefully to supply ingredients for moussaka and baba ganoush very soon! The flower of the aubergine is stunning and hence we simply had to feature one of the plants in the kitchen garden for our visitors to admire.

Casting my mind back to the winter when the garden was in planning stage, I was keen to continue in the tradition of running the kitchen garden in keeping with how the Spencers kept it, with reference to Fred’s journal entries where I noted a burgeoning interest in introducing edible perennials. I can relate to this enthusiasm because as a time-poor allotment holder I am always keen to reduce the labour involved in the endeavour. Perennials are a perfect solution as once they are raised initially, they come back each year with little effort beyond pruning and mulching. I took this interest a step further and allocated a large bed in the corner behind the compost bays to perennial edible crops. Given the slow growth of perennials it will take a few years for the bed to fill out, and realistically harvests will not be yielded before I leave York Gate this time next year. My favourite introduction which I am really excited for people to try is the mulberry! Typically the mulberry tree is vast, so tall and wide it would shade the entire kitchen garden. The dwarf mulberry reaches a diminutive five feet tall so should fit perfectly in the space. I hope the fruit is as delicious as that of the full-size tree.

It is really difficult for me to digest and summarise my reflections on the task of running the kitchen garden because I have so many and the season is not even over. It has been a privilege and at times a burden but always a very intensive learning experience! Ultimately, that is what I am at York Gate for. I look forward to witnessing another season in the kitchen garden in which we can build on the successes and make some design changes to create an even more beautiful and productive space.