The Rail Garden
This herber, one of the medieval words for a garden, for was inspired by a fifteenth century painting. It was unusual in that the picture showed the individual flower beds being mostly planted with only one sort of plant.
The beds in medieval gardens are usually raised and edged. This idea goes back to at least the Roman period. Walafrid Strabo writing in the ninth century described how he used a mattock to weed and then pile the soil which he edged with planks so that the rain would not wash the soil away. Raised beds were essential in courtyards where the soil had been stripped and the surface cobbled. They are also useful as you can weed and tend the plants without standing on the soil, which is useful as there were no weeding forks or trowels in the medieval period.
This herber, one of the medieval words for a garden, for was inspired by a fifteenth century painting. It was unusual in that the picture showed the individual flower beds being mostly planted with only one sort of plant.
The beds in medieval gardens are usually raised and edged. This idea goes back to at least the Roman period. Walafrid Strabo writing in the ninth century described how he used a mattock to weed and then pile the soil which he edged with planks so that the rain would not wash the soil away. Raised beds were essential in courtyards where the soil had been stripped and the surface cobbled. They are also useful as you can weed and tend the plants without standing on the soil, which is useful as there were no weeding forks or trowels in the medieval period.