The Kitchen Garden

The kitchen garden would have been a mainstay of medieval life regardless of your station. The plants grown here would have been used as food , to make medicines , and for dyes and aromas . There is no absolute list of plants grown in  this type of garden, that would have depended on where the garden was located and the lifestyle of the owners. Gardens in rural areas could be supplemented with plants collected from the surrounding woods and fields. Urban gardens may have had a larger plant selection or could have purchased what they did not grow from farmers, herbalists or plant gatherers.  Because of the multiple uses of many of the plants it is very difficult to group the plants in this garden by use. An example of this is rosemary, which could be used for perfume, ointments, soaps, flavoring for candy, seasoning, boils, gout, jaundice and epilepsy. Another is mugwort, which was used as a seasoning, a protection against evil, a tobacco substitute and an insect repellent.
 
 

—
This site is maintained by the staff of the Center for Medieval Studies.
Please contact the webmaster if you experience difficulty.