A pergola in the walled garden at Hillsborough Park, Sheffield

A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls for horticultural rather than security purposes. These walls may also serve a decorative or security purpose, but their essential function in the north temperate zone has been to shelter the garden from wind and frost.

The shelter of walling can raise the ambient temperature within the garden by several degrees, creating a microclimate that permits plants to be grown that would not survive in the unmodified local climate. Most walls were constructed from stone, but lining walls with brick, which absorbs and retains solar heat, raised the temperature against that wall, allowing peaches, nectarines and grapes to be grown as espaliers against south-facing walls as far north as southeast Great Britain and southern Ireland.

A typical walled garden where the stone acts as a slow-release reradiator of solar energy.

The traditional design of a walled garden, split into four quarters separated by paths, and a wellhead or pool at the centre, dates back to the very earliest gardens of Persia. The hortus conclusus or "enclosed garden" of High Medieval Europe was more typically enclosed by hedges or fencing, or the arcades of a cloister; though some protection from weather and effective protection from straying animals was afforded, these were not specifically walled gardens.

Movable blocks to control the movement of hot air in a heated wall.

British examples of elaborate walled gardens include Shugborough (England), Bodysgallen Hall (Wales), Alnwick Castle (England), Luton Hoo (England), Myres Castle (Scotland) and Muchalls Castle (Scotland). In the United Kingdom, many country houses also had walled kitchen gardens, distinct from the decorative gardens. They received their greatest elaboration in the second half of the 19th century.^[1] Many of these labour-intensive gardens fell into disuse in the 20th century, but others have been revived to house primarily decorative gardens, some of which also produce fruit, vegetables and flowers for cutting.

Croxteth Hall in Liverpool (England) has a walled garden that has openings on the inside, where fires are lit to heat the wall further where fruit is growing against it; there are also chimneys or flues to allow a throughflow of air and to provide a means of escape for the smoke.

[edit] In literature

Psyche Opening the Door to Cupid's Garden, by John William Waterhouse

In the story of Susanna and the Elders, a walled garden is the scene of both an alleged tryst and an attempted rape. Because of the walls, the community is unable to determine which actually occurred.

In John William Waterhouse's interpretation of the myth of Cupid and Psyche, Psyche lived in Cupid's walled garden.

Much of the storyline of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's story The Secret Garden revolves around a walled garden which has been locked for ten years.

Rappaccini's Daughter, a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, takes place almost entirely within the confines of a walled garden in which Beatrice, the lovely daughter of a mad scientist, lives alongside gorgeous but lethal flowers.

[edit] See also

• Drystone wall

[edit] References

[edit] Notes

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links