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Posted: May 17, 2011

The Garden Medieval

The garden was a central part of any village and the village of the Ozark Medieval Fortress is no exception. Located near the wool cottage along the limestone trail, the garden area is composed of several beds each containing plants designated for certain uses. Since plants were used for everything from basic food items to dyes for cloth, the idea of designating a certain area for a specific purpose makes a lot of sense. For instance, there are 4 raised beds designated for dyes, medicines and aromatics, seasonings, and food as well as an additional bed called a “pleasants garden” which contains flowers purely for enjoyment. Often you would see many of the same plants in each garden but that does not mean that they serve the same purpose. Rosemary in the seasoning garden would be used to flavor pork and poultry but in the dye garden it would be used to provide a beautiful hunter green dye to the wool.

The 2011 garden is well underway with items such as Stinging Nettle, Digitalis, Horsetail, Mullein, Aloe and Lemon Balm in the Medicinal garden. The seasoning garden is filled with chives, sage, thyme, dill, basil, mint, and cilantro among others. The flowers this year should be a gorgeous collection of iris, lilies, marigolds, calendulas, aster, daisies, dianthus, and sunflowers. The food garden has the old standbys of beans, carrots, parsnips, radishes, onions, leeks, beets and garlic.

Many of our visitors will be surprised to discover that some of the most basic garden plants found in the gardens of Arkansas will not be found in the one at the castle. Can you imagine a garden with no tomatoes, squash or peppers? No corn or potatoes? Surprising to most people, all of those vegetables were “New World” plants that Europe had never seen until the 15th or 16th centuries. In fact, the potato is native to Peru and did not make it to France until 1600! Just imagine if the potato had made it to France a few hundred years earlier, the serving serfs might have said “would you like fries with that pheasant, m’lord?”. Somehow it just doesn’t seem to fit does it?

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• 16 · Paul · 4 July 2011, 05:33

  I loved this portion of the tour.I did notice that the garden was located in a very poor area, too much shade. Was that common for the era or is it just necessary for the location of the tour?

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