House, Gardens & Cafe Open Tuesday - Sunday 10.30 - 17.00

Summer Kitchen Garden Course

Saturday 28th August

10am till 4pm

Coffee and lunch which will be provided.

This event will take place predominantly outside so practical clothes, stout footwear and a raincoat will be needed, all tools and equipment will be provided.

Join our experienced gardener Keith Oakley for a day of learning the best practice for your kitchen garden.

Included in the day will be a tour of the behind the scenes areas of Gilbert White’s Gardens.

Learn how to harvest main crop potatoes, prepare soil and plant out leeks, thin carrot crops, prepare soil and broadcast green manure seed, hoe and weed pumpkin bed, prepare soil/prepare tilth/set line/ sow small and medium seed, maintain paths and beds, composting, storing produce ideas, cleaning and maintaining tool.

    Gilbert Whites House

    Gilbert White was aged 7 or 8 when the White family moved from the Vicarage on Selborne’s Plestor, to this house, called ‘The Wakes’ (named after the Wake family who had lived here previously). At that time the property would have been no more than a ‘two up, two down’  but over the subsequent years lots of extensions and additions have been made, creating the long sizeable house you see today.

    The rooms have been restored following descriptions in White’s own correspondence and include a chair he used at Oriel College, Oxford (loaned from the College), items of contemporary furniture, family portraits and bed hangings embroidered for him by his aunts.

    On display is the original manuscript of his book, The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne, which was purchased with generous help from English Heritage and others.

    Learn more