Friends of Markeaton Park - The Walled Garden

The Walled Garden

Opening Times
Tuesdays - 10:00am to 12:00pm
Wednesdays - 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Thursdays - 10:00am to 12:00pm
Saturdays - 10:00am to 12:00pm
Sundays - 10:00am to 12:00pm

The Walled Garden is closed to the public from Sunday 17th December. We will re-open on Saturday March 2nd 2024.

Volunteering will commence again on Tuesday 6th February 2024.

As well as being open for the public to walk around this historical site and admire the garden, we also have a variety of plants and seasonal produce for sale; the profits made from these sales help with the upkeep of the garden. All produce sold is grown on site and picked fresh.

We are pleased to announce that we have once again been given the Green Flag Award. We have also been awarded with a RHS outstanding certificate, which reflects the hard work of our volunteers.

In November 2014, the Friends of Markeaton Park were offered the lease of the Walled Garden, including a bothy and polytunnel. Our aim is to restore the garden back to its former glory so it can be enjoyed by the local community. In the past, the garden would have produced fruit, vegetables, herbs and cut flowers for Markeaton Hall.

Opening

First Year

Thanks to funding from the University of Derby, we were able to buy supplies such as tools, seeds and compost to get the project underway. Volunteers set about clearing the garden of all rubbish and weeds, and in the first spring around 75% of the garden had been brought back into use. The bothy was also restored with money awarded to the park by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

These photos show the garden when we first took over the Walled Garden. As you can see, there was a lot of tidying and organising to do before the garden could be opened to the public.

The garden was officially opened in 2015 by our patron, Jonathan Moseley.

Over the winter of 2015, with the help of the Allestree Neighbourhood Board, the small poly tunnel was repaired. The next spring, we were given some raised beds by the council and we later received funding from Toyota for more raised beds for our young gardener club.

Over the winter of 2016/17, we rebuilt the brick wall to the side of the bothy, which once housed the old glass house, built some traditional cold frames, created a small orchard area, re-planted the bed to the left of the gate as you enter the garden and replaced some of the raised beds in the large poly tunnel.

During the Autumn & Winter of 2018 we re-designed and re-built some of our flower beds. The work was funded by a Tesco Bags of Help grant and was carried out by volunteers and a local landscaping company. We dug up and saved all the perennials ready to plant in the spring of 2018 then Mike and his crew moved in to do the heavy work using re-cycled sleepers for the edges of the new beds. We planted bulbs as soon as the beds were ready and are looking forward to providing another beautiful, peaceful sitting area for everyone to enjoy.

We sell the produce we grow and plants we raise to fund our activities. We also hold events, horticultural workshops and put on activities for schools and other groups in the garden.