Petersfield Physic Garden

Petersfield Physic Garden is a private garden which is open to the public without charge, providing a green oasis in the centre of town. It is a garden created in a 17th Century style with distinct parts laid out for different purposes.

Physic gardens owe their name to the plants grown in them which were considered to contain medicinal properties. Generally the beds were of a defined geometric shape and laid out in a formal pattern. In addition to these formal herb beds, planted with such things as Woad (Isatis tinctoria), Selfheal (Prunella vulgaris) and Horehound (Marrubium vulgare), there is a topiary walk, a knot garden, an informal orchard with wild flowers and a rose arch.

The 17th Century was also a time when many plants were introduced from the New World and there are borders planted with shrubs, roses and herbaceous plants which would have been familiar at that period.