3 - The Queen's Garden and The Royal Kitchens Garden. Tete-a-Tete With Kew Gardens

Part 3. 

41 photographs.

I loved this part of  The Gardens. 

Kew Palace, the Queen's garden, the Royal Kitchens and their garden.

I love, love, love everything in this garden!

This is the information from the official Kew Gardens' SITE:

History and design

The Queen's Garden was conceived in 1959 by Sir George Taylor, then Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, and officially opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II ten years later. The design involved the recreation of arcades and steps associated with the Dutch House. It also contains several pieces of sculpture including a marble satyr, a venetian well head and five 18th century terms, commissioned by HRH Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1734/5 and considered to be the oldest pieces of sculpture remaining at Kew.

There is also a wrought iron pillar from Hampton Court Palace and a gazebo on a mound. One element is a parterre enclosed in box hedges and standing in the pond in the centre of the parterre is a copy of Verocchio's 'Boy with a Dolphin', the original of which is in Florence's Palazzo Vecchio.

Plants

The plants in the Queen's Garden are exclusively those grown in Britain before and during the 17th century. Their labelling differs from Kew's norm, since they include not only today's botanical name and family, but also:-

• The common name in the 17th century
• A virtue, or quotation from a herbal (plant book)
• The author's name and date of publication

Let's read it! Very interesting!

"During the 17th century plants were grown for culinary and medicinal purposes rather than their beauty. They were used in cooking to mask the flavour of tainted meat and strewn either fresh or dry in houses to sweeten the atmosphere in an age when hygiene and cleanliness were not considered important. Flowers were made into nosegays and carried in city streets to disquise unpleasant aromas and ward off the plague.

Some plants were credited with supernatural powers and considered more effective when gathered at certain  times (a particular phase of the moon) or places (a graveyard).

These uses of 300 years ago may amuse us today but old herbal remedies may still be effective and culinary herbs are gaining in popularity. Pot-pourri is a modern counterpart to thr strewing herbs and nosegays are still carried by judges in procession at the beginning of the judicial year."

Inside the Kew Palace

Rabbits...

 The Royal Kitchens' gardens:

 Inside the Royal Kitchens' garden shed:

Inside the Royal Kitchens:

Some information about the Royal Kitchens can be found  HERE  
My previous posts about the Kew Gardens are:
Part 1 - Walled Garden and Around
Woodland, Rock Gardens and Some More

***Copyright 2013 TatyanaS