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BBC Northern Ireland writes:<\/p>\n
You may not have heard of cardoon, but more than a century ago, it regularly graced Victorian dining tables. Now, it graces the kitchen garden at Florencecourt, as part of a project to return the space to its early 20th Century glory.\u00a0 David Corscadden, the head gardener at the National Trust property said: \u2018Three years ago, this garden was a two-acre field. We’ve been trying to restore it to how it would have been in the 1930s.\u00a0 We’re trying to make it attractive for visitors so they’ll want to come visit time and time again.\u2019<\/p>\n
The garden would have been in its heyday during the Victorian era and up to the World War Two.\u00a0 Mr Corscadden said: \u2018Flowers and fruit would have mingled with the regular dinner table vegetables and now it’s just the same. said Mr Corscadden.\u00a0 We’ve got two acres of herbaceous border and fruit gardens and what we would call perennial vegetables, things like artichokes and rhubarb, which would be there all the time.<\/p>\n
\u2026 glasshouses now are merely white shadows on the red brick wall surrounding the garden, but they’re not escaping the garden staff’s attention.\u00a0 Mr Corscadden said: \u2018We are very happy that the Heritage Lottery Fund is working with us to restore and bring those two glasshouses back.\u00a0 We’re in the early stages, but we’re confident it will happen and that will be a tremendous achievement here.\u2019<\/p>\n
The garden is both purposeful and pretty.<\/p>\n
\u2018The garden in the past would have provided the food and the flowers for the house. But now we sell all our vegetables through the Visitor Centre,\u2019 said Mr Corscadden.<\/p>\n
And if you’re still wondering what cardoon is, the Visitor Centre is where you can buy some to try.\u00a0 Apparently it’s like celery, although you cut and boil it before eating.<\/p>\n