Gardening Australia – May 2019

52 MAY 2019 GARDENING AUSTRALIA

TRAVEL

Knole

AlsoinKent,abouta40-minute

driveaway,isVitaSackville-West’s

ancestralhome–theoneshenever

gotover‘losing’.The15th-century

houseitselfcovers1.6haoflandand

isoftendescribedasbeingmorelike

avillagethanahome.

nationaltrust.org.uk/knole

GreatDixter

Aground-breakinggardeninEast

Sussex,surroundinga15th-century

half-timberedmanor,madefamous

bytheinspiringandprovocative

gardenwriter,ChristopherLloyd.

It’sabouta25-minutedrivefrom

SissinghurstCastleGarden.

greatdixter.co.uk

Dungenessbeach

Thispicturesquelybleakshingle

beach,about 45 minutessouth-east

ofSissinghurst,hasextraordinary

plants,suchasedibleseakale

(Crambemaritima),growingonits

shores.Walkalongtheroadtospot

thelatefilmdirectorDerekJarman’s

spare,postmoderngardenathis

modesthome,ProspectCottage.

WHILEYOUARETHERE

the garden into ‘rooms’ was a relatively

new idea when it was employed here,

brilliantly, by Harold, who managed to take

an odd collection of misaligned buildings

and resolve them into a unified whole.

The hedges and lawns take their cue

from the buildings, but somehow fudge

all the tricky angles in such a way as to

look inevitable, comfortable and natural.

Colour-themed borders and gardens

were again on the rise in the mid-1900s,

and Vita caught the public imagination by

writing about plans for a white garden with

“a low sea of grey clumps of foliage, pierced

here and there with tall white flowers”,

adding, “I cannot help hoping that the great

ghostly barn owl will sweep silently across

a pale garden, next summer in the twilight

• the pale garden that I am now planting,
  under the first flakes of snow.”
  The idea of exuberant planting exploding
  from contained, geometric beds seems like

anobviousformattous,butitwasnew

intheearly20thcentury,andVitawent

totownwithit.Andnowtherearemown

pathsacrossshaggylawnsandthrough

oldorchardstheworldover,asaresultof

seeingthematSissinghurst.It’safairytale

setting,drapedingardenexcellence. GA

PHOTOS

MICHAEL M

cCOY, ALAMY

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT

Mown paths run through the orchard;

looking down on the front lawn from the

tower reveals odd angles that are cleverly

masked at ground level; a Chinese Ming

vase sits beneath the decorative iron

arbor draped in massed Rosa mulliganii.

For more details, visit nationaltrust.

org.uk/sissinghurst-castle-garden

NEED TO KNOW

Sissinghurst Castle Garden is open from

11am to 5.30pm from early March until

the end of October, and guided tours are

available on weekends in January and

February. Entry is about A$25 for adults

and A$65 for a family ticket.

You can catch a train from London to

Staplehurst, then a bus to the village of

Sissinghurst. From there, it’s about a

half-hour walk to the castle. By far the

most convenient way to get there is by car

• it’s about an hour and a half from central
  London. Bus tours can also be organised.