The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Harlow Carr Garden is one of five public gardens run by the RHS and is located one and a half miles from the centre of Harrogate, North Yorkshire.
Getting there:
We arrived by car, with ample free parking available. For visitors using public transport there are regular trains to Harrogate from both York and Leeds. Close to the station it’s then possible to board Bus 6 taking 15 minutes to reach Harlow Carr, the nearest stop being a four minute walk from the garden entrance. On a lovely day, walking to the garden from the town centre is also very pleasant. The walk starts from the Valley Gardens in the town centre and continues up through the Pine Woods taking approximately 30 minutes to reach Harlow Carr. An incentive of taking public transport is that visitors receive a discount of 30% on ticket prices so do remember to keep hold of your bus/rail tickets as proof.
Exploring the Garden:
Nestled in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside, Harlow Carr is a delight in every season, showcasing diverse landscapes with different garden styles and an extensive plant collection. The garden has recently expanded and now covers more than 58 acres so it never feels crowded.
There’s something for everyone from woodland walks to ornamental gardens, wildflower meadows and stream side borders. Our latest visit was in early autumn when the main borders were ablaze with colour.
Autumn is a great time to visit the garden as it is when the annual Festival of Flavours weekend takes place. Included in the usual admission charge visitors have an opportunity to watch live cookery demonstrations, browse local food stalls and take kitchen garden tours led by RHS gardeners.
The Kitchen Garden
The Kitchen Garden was originally developed to illustrate what could be grown on a windy site and in heavy clay soil. The garden is set out in a series of raised beds that allow the soil to warm up quickly.
Although our visit didn’t coincide with the Festival of Flavours we did enjoy a guided tour of the kitchen garden and we were able to taste freshly picked raspberries, tomatoes and apples. It was explained that the kitchen gardeners work in conjunction with the Harlow Carr chefs to grow and supply fresh produce for their newly opened cafe.
Packed with an enticing mix of ornamentals and edibles, the Kitchen Garden includes local and heritage varieties of fruit and vegetables, as well as unusual crops and plants used in weaving and dyeing. As early September is traditional harvest time trug baskets containing pumpkins, chillies, brassicas and chard were being filled by a member of the kitchen garden team.
The garden’s purpose is to demonstrate new, unusual and heritage selections of edible crops, as well as everyday favourites. A three-year crop rotation is in place, with flowers and herbs growing among the vegetables to deter pests and attract pollinators. The garden champions self-sufficiency with supplies to the cafe demonstrating perfectly the concept of plot to plate. The new glasshouse is used for tender plants such as tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, basil and lemon grass and in the cooler months hardy salad crops are protected in there from the weather.
Flowers such as marigolds and nasturtiums are also grown in the garden as edible crops whilst larger flowers such as sunflowers are used for decorative displays. There’s plenty of colour during autumn as ornamental flowers mingle among the vegetables creating some striking combinations.
Harlow Carr’s Fruit Garden is cleverly contained within the Kitchen Garden and includes a mini-orchard with step-over apples and an apple arch. The arch must look beautiful in springtime filled with white and pink blossom.
The varieties of apple grown include red-flushed ‘Discovery’, yellowish ‘Limelight’, striped ‘Ellison’s Orange’ and ‘King of the Pippins’. A range of berries including cranberries, redcurrants, lingonberries and blueberries are also cultivated, some of which we were able to sample.
The Harrogate Arms Café
A former hotel located just beyond the Harlow Carr grounds was purchased by the RHS and incorporated into the edge of the garden. Known as The Harrogate Arms, the building is of special historic interest due to its origins and development as an early Victorian hotel associated with the Harlow Carr Spa. Constructed in 1844, like many places in Harrogate at that time, the spa thrived as a destination where visitors could take the waters from the natural springs and enjoy the surrounding parkland for health benefits.
The redeveloped Harrogate Arms is now open as a new RHS Harlow Carr café at the garden. The surrounding landscape around the building has been carefully redesigned to incorporate it into the existing garden. Views of the Kitchen Garden can be seen from the outdoor terrace of the café.
The interior is bright and airy with contemporary styled fruit and vegetable prints along its walls. Open daily, the menu utilises the abundance of fresh produce picked daily from the kitchen garden with a board indicating the items used that day.
On our visit these were salad leaves, spinach, broad beans, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and spring onions. We couldn’t resist bowls of granola and yoghurt topped with fresh berries from the garden followed by delicious pastries. With ingredients used for soups, salads, sandwiches and desserts on the doorstep, the distance from plot to plate is practically zero making the most of the garden’s growing space, with other items sourced within the Harrogate area.
Alongside the Harrogate Arms, Yorkshire’s famous Betty’s Tearooms have a large cafe with an outdoor terrace overlooking the garden with a smaller outlet within the garden itself.
Continuing our walk around the garden we came to Hedgehog Street which is a UK based conservation initiative set up by two charities, The People’s Trust for Endangered Species’ and the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. The project commenced in 2011 in response to a decline in hedgehog numbers. Linked to the initiative is the Hedgehog Street website which provides useful information on the habitat of hedgehogs together with tips on managing gardens to the benefit of hedgehogs.
The sun then decided to put in a welcome appearance as we concluded our visit with a stroll through the wild flower meadows. The garden has several areas of long-standing native meadow, made up predominately of grasses with native wildflowers, including orchids growing among them.
Before leaving, we browsed the plant centre and large gift shop where we were tempted to buy some greeting cards and a gift for an upcoming birthday.
I do hope you have enjoyed my tour of Harlow Carr as whether you are an enthusiastic gardener or just enjoy a relaxing stroll through the gardens along with a light lunch in one of the cafés, a visit to the garden on the edge of Harrogate is a treat for all.
