Gilbert White was a clergyman, naturalist, ornithologist and ecologist born in July 1720 at the vicarage in Selborne. In 1728 his family moved to “The Wakes” in Selborne and apart from his time in various parishes he lived there for the rest of his life. Over the years the house was greatly extended and is now a museum open to the public and the garden an RHS Partner Garden.
Gilbert is known as the Father of Ecology and his works were studied by Charles Darwin and many others. He studied the changing seasons and natural variations of weather and wildlife now called Phenology. To assist in his studies he invented the Wine Pipe Seat made from a barrel and having a thatched roof. This seat revolved through 360 degrees and enabled him to observe nature for 12 to 14 hours each day. The results of his 46 years of study led to his famous book published in 1759, “The Natural History of Selborne”, which has never been out of print. At that time Selborne had 58 different wild flower species. There is also a hanger (wood) which dominates the area and Gilbert created a viewing point at the highest point.
Whilst continuing his research Gilbert was also a keen gardener and in 1761 he built three features in the garden that can still be seen, the Haha at the end of the main lawn designed to keep livestock in the meadow without spoiling the view together with the sundial in the middle of the Haha. He also built the fruit wall at the side of the lawn to trap the heat of the sun to help to grow fruit trees, and the wall is still marked with his initials and the date. He also created a melon frame and grew melons and pineapples from seed that may have been provided by his brother in Gibraltar. The fruit wall was used to grow peaches and other more exotic plants. He had melon parties for neighbours and provided vegetables for the villagers. For everything that he grew copious notes were made about sowing, planting, harvesting and the weather at those times.
In May 2020 300 years after Gilbert’s birth Sparsholt College had intended to have a garden at the Chelsea Flower Show but because of Covid the garden was postponed until September 2021which made things very difficult. The garden “The Natural Kalendar” did go ahead planted with Gilbert White plants and using 18th Century bricks. It had a fruit wall and was divided into six parts which were oddly called quarters based on the original garden. The six quarters were arranged by season of the year for planting and flowering.
