In medieval Europe, herb gardens were rarely decorative.
They were practical.
If you walked behind a cottage in the 1300s, you would almost always find a small kitchen garden growing close to the house. These gardens were often planted just outside the back door, within easy reach of the cooking hearth.
There were good reasons for this.
First, herbs were used constantly in cooking. Before refrigeration, many foods benefited from the preservative and antimicrobial properties of herbs such as thyme, sage, and rosemary.
Second, the same herbs used in cooking were also used in home remedies. A woman preparing dinner might step outside to gather thyme for a stew, and while she was there, she might pick chamomile to brew a calming tea for someone feeling unwell.
Kitchen gardens commonly contained plants like:
• sage
• thyme
• parsley
• rosemary
• mint
• fennel
• lavender
Many of these herbs served three purposes at once: cooking, medicine, and pest control.
In other words, the medieval herb garden was less like a modern flower bed and more like a living pantry and medicine cabinet growing in the soil.
*From the Root & Leaf Journal
Stories, traditions, and the old ways of working with plants. CS