Peasgoods in New Zealand

Entering the walled garden at Burghley House

Series 2 of Our Plant Stories will begin in January and I’m currently researching a story which will take us to New Zealand, so I was in touch this week with the editor of a NZ Garden magazine. I couldn’t resist adding a ps to the email asking if she had heard of the Peasgood’s nonsuch apple tree because well a) I’m a bit obsessed and b) I know that on the Orange Pippin website there were several reviews of the apple from NZ. Imagine my delight when she replied: “That is funny about ‘Peasgood Nonsuch’…I actually have one in my garden. I am not sure why it is grown so much here, it does do very well!”

I’m excited to be putting out another podcast episode today. I hope you enjoy Joe Whitehead’s passion for this walled garden project. I’m including the episode page text in today’s blog and if you want to see photographs of those mushroom houses and fruit galleries do click here to see them on that page.

Andy Peasgood’s plant story has led us on the most fascinating journey and I don’t think it is yet over. He remembered an enormous apple, the size of a small training football, on a tree that grew in his grandparent’s garden. He was curious because it shared his surname. So we went on the trail of the Peasgood’s nonsuch apple tree going back over 150 years to a young woman who planted an apple pip.  Her great granddaughter who lives in British Colombia in Canada, had all the papers from the RHS dated 1872, conferring a first class certificate on the apple from the resulting tree which since the young girl had married a Mr Peasgood was now named the Peasgood’s nonsuch apple.

Today we stop off at Burghley House because of a man called Mr R Gilbert who also liked the apple.  We know he liked it because in 1883  he took some to the National Apple Conference. (Another apple was getting quite a lot of attention at that conference - The Bramley!)

I was curious about Mr R Gilbert and thanks to Joe Whitehead the current Headgardener at Burghley House I now know a lot more about this accomplished Victorian, multiple prize winning, gardener.  In this offshoot episode we are focused on the walled kitchen garden at Burghley, worked by 120 gardeners, producing fruit and vegetables for the whole estate, cut flowers sent to Covent Garden and as Mr Gilbert boasted - the skill and ability to put a pineapple on the table, every day of the year.

These walled gardens were abandoned in the 1960s but watch this space - they are about to be filled again with plants and I am sure people.  But in the meantime we are privileged to have a sneak preview of the site before the changes, privy to the ideas in Joe’s head.  He has spent many hours thinking about the site and his vision and passion for the project is clear to see. 

I am off to the Lake District next week on the trail of another plant story for Series 2. If you want to support this project you can do so through ‘Buy me a Coffee’ - I promise I won’t spend any gifts on coffee or plants but it will help to cover some of the costs of the podcast!