Gardening Australia – May 2019

50 MAY 2019 GARDENING AUSTRALIA

gardener’s

Createdbyreveredgarden

designer,novelistandpoet

Vita Sackville-West,this

extraordinarilyinfluential

gardenisnottobemissed,

writesMICHAELMcCOY

SISSINGHURST

CASTLE GARDEN

in Kent, UK

S

issinghurst Castle groans under

the weight of its rich history but

is equally laden with horticultural

currency. Few locations in the

world overlay dizzyingly romantic buildings

with such garden intensity and ambition.

Some of the buildings date from the

16th century. They’ve seen war, famine,

plagues, wealth and extreme poverty. But

their recent history began in 1930, when the

castle was purchased in a ruined state and

brought back to life by the aristocratically

peerless Vita Sackville-West, who was

deeply mourning the non-inheritance of

her ancestral home, Knole. Her male cousin,

of course, had inherited the home instead.

Courtyards, cottages and old farm

buildings surround a tower of such

enchanting and bewitching power that,

at a glance, you immediately understand

why Vita made an on-the-spot decision

to buy, against all fi nancial good sense.

Along with her husband, diplomat and

author Harold Nicolson, Vita proceeded

to create one of the most visited and

recognisable gardens in the world. Its fame

grew further when, at the very end of her

life, Vita employed two remarkable female