Display Garden

There are no archival pictures of this part of the property but we know that there were extensive vegetable and cutting gardens here. Produce from those gardens was delivered to the mansion, and sent by train to the family’s winter home in Boston. Garden staff still pick from the cutting garden for arrangements (created weekly by talented volunteers) displayed in the mansion. Blithewold’s horticulturists also use the Display Garden to demonstrate new plants and combinations as well as sustainable, pollinator-friendly gardening practices.

 

Three of Blithewold’s 1901 Lord & Burnham greenhouses, originally used for fruit and flower production, were restored in 2005. The footprint of the Palm and Rose houses that were taken down in the 1930’s, is traced in brick to the east of the remaining buildings. Over the winter, the greenhouses are heated and filled with Blithewold’s collection of tender plants, cuttings and seedlings of annuals, tender perennials, and vegetables grown for Blithewold’s many gardens. The head house still functions as a working potting shed as well as the garden staff’s office.

 

 

 

The vegetable garden is no longer plowed by a team of horses but it does feed Blithewold staff and volunteers as well as local needy families. Over 1000lbs of produce was donated to the East Bay Food Pantry over the first season of our partnership. The garden beautifully showcases the season’s succession of vegetables, companion planting, different mulches, planting methods, and staking techniques.

 

View Display Garden Plants List

View Display Garden on Pinterest

 

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