Ryton Organic Gardens

Today we visited Ryton Organic Gardens, just south of Coventury in the Midlands.  It looks such a sad place and yet we had an interesting and uplifting experience .


At the moment it's looking rather sorry for itself, presumably due to financial pressures.  

So much of the place is looking rather bedraggled and in need of some tlc - even the few plants in the very sparse shop looked as though no-one cared for them, which wasn't a good advertisement for the place.   

Paradise Garden, in memory of the late Geoff Hamilton

There were some books and booklets for sale but none of the usual merchandise which can be found at National Trust or similar sites.  There weren't even any of the usual pens, rubbers, and other paraphernalia which children love to accumulate.   An opportunity missed. 

The 'Roots' cafe was fabulous - we enjoyed Beetroot Curry and a Ghanain casserole, and later some sumptuous cakes with coffee.  I can't find a site for this actual cafe, but here's some blurb from their main website: 

Fresh Rootz have won the BBC Good Food Show for best Midland street food 2013, have catered at BBC Good Food Show, Glastonbury Festival, Sun rise Festival and have had an article in the Telegraph Food magazine.
Fresh Rootz cook with children explaining different tastes and flavors using different vegetables creating recipes at birthday parties etc and do cooking demonstrations and classes in peoples homes.
We believe that British root vegetables are amongst the best available, but we are also inspired by the flavours and spices from around the world. Bringing these together we produce a tasty contemporary fusion and every dish has a story behind it.
But we don’t stop there. We also provide hand made charcoal cooked flat breads, salads and homemade treats for after.

some of the compost bins

We had a guided tour around the site by a very knowledgeable, friendly volunteer guide.  He told us all about composting, wormeries, how to have a wildlife-friendly garden, green manures, organic fertilizers, how to control our slug populations, seed saving - all the important things - as well as the history of the place. 


Here's more information from their website:

History of Ryton Gardens

Ryton Gardens has been the home of Garden Organic, the UK’s leading organic growing charity, since the 1980s. Back then the charity was known as the Henry Doubleday Research Association, and having outgrown its premises in Bocking in Essex the organisation made the decision to widen its horizons and moved to its present home near Ryton-on-Dunsmore in Warwickshire.

Lawrence D Hills – an organic pioneer who saw the sustainable value of gardening and growing organically, and who wanted to research and share this knowledge with the wider world, founded the charity, now Garden Organic, in 1958. Having outgrown its original grounds, Lawrence and his team wanted somewhere that they could develop to showcase organic gardening and eventually open to the public.

What visitors see today at Ryton Gardens is the culmination of this vision. Back in 1985, this 22-acre site was a bare, windy paddock containing nothing but a riding school barn and farmhouse. The gardening team at the time then worked tirelessly for a year to get on with the major task of making a garden fit for opening to the public. The ground had to be cleared of weeds; almost a mile of rabbit-proof fencing was put up around the perimeter; a big pond was dug out to attract wildlife; an underground irrigation system was installed; 5,000 hedging and tree saplings were planted; gardens were dug out and planted and paths were laid. And as well as all this, a bungalow was built, along with a new reception centre, cafe and shop. It was a truly mammoth task but the team did it and Ryton Gardens opened on 5th July 1986.

Since then the gardens have expanded, the trees and woodlands have matured, new gardens have come and others have gone, hedges have grown tall, borders have flourished, orchards have grown fruitful, plants and shrubs have flowered, and a wealth of wildlife has moved in.

25 years later and there are ten acres of fully landscaped gardens to explore. And with a Rose Garden, Bee Garden, Orchard, Children’s Garden, Herb Garden, Paradise Garden and much, much more – there’s something for every visitor to discover.

Although I can't copy the plan of the gardens onto this page, here's link: http://www.rytongardens.co.uk/organic-gardens/

They run useful courses, such as photographing your garden, and this one on managing the soil: http://www.rytongardens.co.uk/manage-your-soil/

I hope that such a useful resource may be able to stay open in order to help and inspire us all.  Looking after wildlife and the ability to look after our gardens and being able to feed ourselves is so important.


An interesting site: http://www.macc.org.uk/sites/macc.org.uk/files/SupportForYourCommunityFoodProject.pdf