Physic Garden is a garden where plants with medicinal properties are grown. Such plants have been known to man from time immemorial and grown in gardens for many centuries in countries throughout the world.

n the Middle Ages Physic Gardens were associated in particular with monasteries. In gardens close to an infirmary herbs such as rose, lily, cumin, lovage, tansy, mint and rosemary would be grown to treat fevers, aches and pains, and other ailments of the monks and their guests. The first garden intended to provide plants to study was established at the medical school of the University of Padua in 1545. By the end of the seventeenth century physic gardens were proliferating across Europe, all linked with universities where medicine was taught The Chelsea Physic Garden in London was established in 1673 by the Society of Apothecaries to train their apprentices in identifying medicinal plants.

y the eighteenth century (when the Edmondes family acquired Old Hall) herbs and medicinal plants were widely cultivated for both culinary and medicinal use. They were recommended by such writers on gardening as Batty Langley as 'absolutely necessary for the service of all gentlemen and other families'. Particularly recommended were feverfew, hyssop, gilliflower, marjoram, self-heal and violet..some of the plants described by the Swedish botanist and physician Carolus Linnaeus as 'medical jewels'.