‘Gardens in the Age of Chivalry’

We are delighted to welcome Michael Brown to our Society in November. He will be lecturing us on the fascinating subject of Medieval gardens, which still rate very few pages in the garden history books. The general perception is still of small gardens in the corner of a castle. The number of plants was limited, but was still no less than many modern gardeners use. Yet medieval gardens were imbued with meaning, whether secular or religious, the additional dimension of symbolism, gave a greater depth to medieval gardens. The idea of the garden as an outdoor living area was already well practiced in medieval times; as gardens were the setting for eating and drinking, singing, dancing and general relaxation, and maybe some furtive courtship.