Episode #012: Interview With Glyn Jones, Head of Gardens at Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: Did Shakespeare Have a Garden?

Glyn Jones joins us today to talk about kitchen gardens and estate gardens that impacted Shakespeare. Shakespeare Birthplace Trust maintains 5 gardens thought to have been part of William Shakespeare’s home in Stratford and today Glyn Jones is going to help us explore whether or not Shakespeare had a garden himself, what purpose a garden might have served a playwright, and what sort of things would have been planted there.

In this episode, I ask Glyn about: 

- Why would a playwright own a garden?
- Is a garden and a backyard the same thing? 
- Would Shakespeare have had a kitchen garden? 
- What about those tobacco pipes found on the grounds there? 

We will also discuss Shakespeare's son-in-law, John Hall, the medical doctor, and the importance of herbs in medicine that lead to a medical garden on the grounds at SBT. Mr. Jones will even share with you the best spot to walk at the gardens themselves if you want to stand where Shakespeare himself actually stood.