Gaasbeek castle garden takes a leaf out of the history books
The ornamental walled gardens at Gaasbeek castle are a treasure trove of fruit trees, harking back to the heyday of Belgian agriculture and exuding a Bruegel-like character
Living museum
For a long time, visitors were only admitted by appointment. But that’s all changed. Thanks to a group of keen volunteers, everyone can now stroll like a dignitary along the paths of this beautiful space, built to resemble a late 19th-century formal garden, with its geometric shapes and symmetrical layout, combining fruit, vegetable and ornamental gardens.
“The wide paths in the middle of a garden like this were indeed for noblemen’s use,” says Bart Van Camp from the Agency for Nature and Forests, the department of the Flemish government that manages the garden. “We’re talking about a time in which a garden was a status symbol and an ideal instrument for networking and showing off among the rich. As you could imagine, the workers and gardeners would have to use the smaller paths.”
While the environment may be historical, the garden – which has a 10 kilometre panoramic view over the castle and the picturesque Pajottenland landscape – is completely newly built. “The land we are on used to be an open space in the forest,” Van Camp says. “But in 1996 it became a museum garden focussing on the heyday of traditional Belgian horticulture. Between 1850 and 1900 we were considered world-class at fruit cultivation and the selective breeding of plants.”
Ripe & colourful
As a historical site where there were once gardens in the past, the location is top-notch. Add the rich loamy soil of the Pajottenland and you understand why Van Camp says that, especially at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, when the fruits are ripe, the area exudes a colourful Bruegel-like character.
We’re talking about a time in which a garden was a status symbol and an ideal instrument for networking and showing off among the rich
Walking through the berry and fig gardens, one of the six compartments on the five-acre domain, you notice an abundance of espaliered fruit, tied to a trellis or growing up against a wall. The technique of growing fruit without trunk and (too many) leaves is an art in itself and is pursued to perfection here. A terrace garden and a kitchen garden mix the ornamental and the functional.
In the orchard, with its impressive regional collection of half standard plum trees, Van Camp points out that these fruits used to be far more important than they are now. “Before there was refined sugar, families sweetened their food with plums,” he says. Another natural sweetener used in the kitchen back then was honey, and so a few beehives will soon be added to the garden.
Other orchards show standard fruit trees, typical of local fruit farming circa 1900, or illustrate how cultivation practices have evolved over time. But what happens to the fruit?
“That’s the question almost every visitor asks,” Van Camp says with a smile. “You have to bear in mind that the garden has a museum function. We don’t sell our harvest. On the contrary, we make sure it stays as long as possible on the tree, until it drops, and then it is often too late to eat it.”
Photo courtesy ANB
