Walled Garden Talk & Tasting: Ornamental Potager

Sledmere House and Gardens is hosting a Walled Garden Talk & Tasting: Ornamental Potager on Friday 10 July, from 11:30am to 2:00pm. It's a garden-to-plate afternoon that starts in the Walled Garden and ends with a light lunch in the Courtyard Rooms, so you get to see where the food comes from before you eat it.

The first half is the talk, led by Head Gardener Jan. The focus is the Ornamental Potager—a kitchen garden designed to be as much about looks as it is about produce. Jan will walk through the practical side of it: how they choose the plants, the timing of sowing and harvesting, and the crop rotation they use to keep the soil healthy. There's also a look at companion planting—the old-school trick of growing certain plants together to keep pests and diseases at bay without relying on chemicals. The talk runs for about 30 to 40 minutes, with a Q&A session afterwards if you've got questions.

Once the talk wraps up, you move into the Courtyard Rooms for a light lunch made from the Walled Garden's own produce. The menu is a homemade vegetable quiche, new potatoes with chives, a fresh summer side salad, and a glass of Sledmere Apple Juice. It's a simple, seasonal spread that puts the garden's output on the plate.

Beyond the food, it's a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at how the Sledmere Gardens Team works and how the produce they grow ends up in the Coach House Café. The Walled Garden is one of the main features of the Sledmere House estate, and if you're into this sort of thing, they also run monthly garden tours led by the Head Gardener for a closer look at what it takes to keep the grounds running. Tickets are £32.50 for general admission, and £18.50 for Sledmere Friends members and season ticket holders.