My Medieval Herb Garden

I have a medieval Herb Garden. Its form is from early Middle Ages; in the center there is a small round flower patch. Around it are square or triangle shaped patches. Garden like this I found from Albertus Magnus's book from 10th century. In the center of every patch there is an old rose. Patches are lined with small herbs. Between roses and small herbs taller herbs are grown. This kind od form has the herb garden, which is located in the front of the Medieval Museum of Stockholm. I have lined the patches with small wall made of nature stones: there are lot of stones in the ground in my garden, so it was necessary to use them somewhere. An example of stone walls lining a garden (or so-) patch is from excavations of medieval town of Oslo.

My garden is lined with a fence made from sterns of young birches and rowans. Lawbooks from the Middle Ages (fex. king Kristoffer, king of Sweden in the 15th century, made one) say that a person was not allowed to steel or take twigs from someone's garden. A garden was specified at those times to be an area surrounded with a fence. Fences in medieval Europe were often made of nut or willow, but I had an oversupply with young birches. Reconstructed medieval gardens also have often different grill fences; so I made one, too. An example of this is in Sylvia Landberg's book Medieval Gardens.

When I built my garden I mainly studied John Harvey and his wondeful book Medieaval Gardens (London, 1981). I think that it is the best possible book for a modern medieval gardener. His other books are also very useful. There are plenty of period books from Europe, too. If You use them, You have to remember, though, that between medieval and modern language there is a long journey of time, and many translations or changes might have happened. Who knows if the name of the plants even remain the same...