We were able to visit two different gardens on the grounds. The first one was located in the front near the house and drying kitchen. This one had a few remaining root vegetables (carrots and potatoes), herbs (lavender, sage, etc.), brassicas (lettuce, cabbage, kale). I was taking note of the use of straw for mulching on the beds, and the wooden boards to define the pathways. You really could not call it a raised bed as the beds were only 3 inches higher than the paths.
My favorite was the other vegetable and medicinal herb garden. I loved the bean pergola and the variety of herbs still in the garden. They had left a few bean vines on the pergola so we could see it's purpose. One of the other interesting thing was the tree in the back right corner. The lower branches were supporting a winter squash growing vertically! It appeared to be an acorn type of squash. I told one of the other mothers, I had read about people growing pumpkins up of roofs and I had used a fence side to life it somewhat off the ground, but this was new.
One of the employees, not in character, was planting some bulbs for the Spring. She let the children place the bulbs in the holes while the adults read more of the signs posted throughout the garden.
As you can also see, this garden did use a shredded wood mulch on the paths, but the beds were so packed with plantings, there seemed no need to mulch inside them. Either this was the plan, or a team of weeders was used before our arrival. It was such a beautiful garden.
