Vegetable production has thousands years of history. The first written records show that the ancient Romans, Egyptians and Babylonians grew cabbage (Brassica sp.), carrot (Daucus sp.), garlic (Allium sp.), lettuce (Lactuca sp.), Swiss chard (Beta sp.) and sorrel (Rumex sp.). The development of vegetable growing in our country is mainly thanks to the religious orders such as the Benedictines. Each monastery had a simple vegetable garden in a formal shape. The cultivation of various species of plants constituted a very important activity. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles I issued a decree that contained more than seventy species of plants recommended for cultivation. Nearly two dozen of them were just vegetables.
Among the longest-cultivated vegetables include horseradish (Armoracia sp.), garlic (Allium sp.) and cabbage (Brassica sp.). Vegetables, along with cereals, legumes and root crops, formed an important part of everyone’s diet. With the increasing consumption of vegetables come various regional varieties, especially in areas with good cultivation conditions, such as the “Polabí, Mělnicko, Plzeň or Podyjí“. Famous are cabbage from Znojmo, onions from Všetaty or horseradish from Malín.
Our vegetable garden is designed in a simple rectangular shape. The beds are arranged in stripes, which are broken in the middle with a grassy pathway. At its centre are planted apple (Malus sp.) shaped into a flat wall. Visitors can see different varieties of each vegetable species. In addition to traditional types of vegetables such as carrot plant (Daucus carota L.), lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.), pea (Pisum sativum L.), onion (Allium cepa L.) leek (Allium porrum L.) or annual pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) and other species also grow less well known species such as eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), Peruvian gooseberry (Physalis peruviana L.) and cardoon (Cynara cardunculus L.). The humble turnip is an interesting vegetable; botanically kohlrabi turnip rapa (Brassica napus L. var. Napobrassica L.), popularly also called swede, which in the middle ages was one of the most cultivated crops. Similar is a turnip (Brassica rapa L. var. Rapa), which was especially popular in France and in England. A large part of the vegetable garden planting consists of 100 different varieties of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.), which differ in shape, taste and color (from white, pink, orange, green to red, black or a combination of multiple colors).
