Kitchen gardens have been a feature of English/British gardens since a t least Roman times. Due to the distance of time, we probably can’t say with 100% certainty when exactly when the first one was set up. I’m no expert on any history, let alone ancient history so I can only base this on what I’ve read. The Celts did grow their own food in some capacity though.

Like with any kitchen gardens, the aim was to grow food for the family of the house and apparently, there was an aim to grow a surplus for sale locally too. There is evidence of these gardens at several Roman villas in England, including Fishbourne and Bancroft Villa.

At Housesteads and Wallsend forts along Hadrian’s Wall, and at Croy Hill and Rough Castle on the Antonine Wall, there is evidence of fresh vegetables being grown outside the walls of the forts (which would have been a frequently very wet task, based on my visit to Hadrian’s wall as a teenager)!

The Romans are known to have taken plants with them around their empire. They introduced more than fifty plants including roses, rosemary, apples, plums, cucumber, pears, cherries and boxwood into England, which would have probably been fantastic-eating a broad range of foods is a great thing I think! Unfortunately for the British people of the time, things like tomatoes and potatoes were not going to be a thing for centuries, as Europeans had yet to ‘discover’ the American continents.

Next week, I am going to be looking at medieval kitchen gardens, where there is hopefully a little more to say.

https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/learn/story-of-england/romans/food-and-health/#:~:text=The%20Romans%20introduced%20over%2050,including%20coriander%2C%20dill%20and%20fennel.

https://www.the-secretgardens.co.uk/secret-kitchen-gardens.html

https://www.colwynn.com/the-history-of-garden-design-roman-gardens/