A whimsical garden inspired by Beatrix Potter’s tales
The Peter Rabbit™ Garden is a charming show garden located within the Beatrix Potter™ Attraction.
The garden is inspired by Beatrix Potter’s illustrations, featuring iconic details like Peter’s hiding spot in a watering can and his jacket-turned-scarecrow. Designed by Chelsea RHS Gold medalist Richard Lucas, it recreates scenes from her beloved tales with carefully chosen plants that reflect those from her lifetime.
A special recreation of our Lake District garden won a coveted Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.
The garden is created with local materials, including Honister slate and Furness bricks and is tended to using organic principles. Growing in the garden are unusual and traditional varieties of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers which Beatrix Potter would have known and grown in her own garden. You can try some of the seasonal fruit, vegetables and salad we grow in our Café.
The garden tells the story of Beatrix Potter the naturalist and is designed to capture the very essence of Beatrix Potter’s world. Look out for the gooseberry bush where Peter got caught in a net as he tried to escape Mr. McGregor and other details from the stories which are recreated a number of the garden scenes. Keen gardeners will be able to identify our unusual and traditional varieties of fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers that Beatrix Potter would have known in her lifetime.
Heritage fruit & vegetables in the Peter Rabbit™ Garden include:
Red fruited gooseberries, parsnip ‘Tender and True’, cucumber ‘Long White’ and cabbage ‘January King’ as found in The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Pear trees, lettuces, dianthus and antirrhinums have been lifted from the pages of The Tale of Benjamin Bunny.
From The Tale of The Flopsy Bunnies there is lettuce ‘Paris White’, roses, pansies, and French marigold ‘Legion of Honour’.
Also being grown to add colour and variety are crimson flowered broad beans, ‘Musselburgh’ leek, purple podded peas and rainbow chard.
The original plants were sourced from specialist nurseries across the UK.
The garden is so authentic we even allow dandelions, nettles and other weeds to grow!
The Kitchen Garden
Our Kitchen Garden in nearby Windermere supplies the Peter Rabbit™ Cafe with fresh produce, including seasonal salad crops, herbs.
We use organic growing principles in both the Kitchen Garden and the Peter Rabbit™ Garden, following the guidelines provided by Garden Organic. The Kitchen Garden boasts a polytunnel, and some sturdy rabbit-proof fencing has been erected to protect baby leaves of spinach, sorrel and winter lettuce. Our gardening team work hard to maintain our Gardens in top condition but they must be vigilant! – as Mr. McGregor himself might say… “Don’t forget those blooming rabbits – they’ll eat your lovely veg in a moment if you let them!”
We have a little garden,
A garden of our own
And every day we water there
The seeds that we have sown.
WE love our little garden
And tend it with such care,
You will not find a faced leaf
Or blighted blossom there.
Beatrix Potter, Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes