Saturday 30 May 2015

Sissinghurst Castle Garden




I don't know much about gardening but, even so, Sissinghurst Castle Garden was a sheer delight.  It also has some interesting history and people associated with it.

The garden was created in the 1930's by poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicolson – he was a historian, diarist and diplomat.  They were quite a pair!

Sissinghurst can be found in Kent in England.  It is about a one and a half hour drive from London (according to Mr Google).

The first house on the site goes back to the Middle Ages.  It became a bit of a ruin and was operated as a poor house for a time.  But the destiny of the house changed for the better when in 1030 Vita Sackville-West bought it along with 400 acres of surrounding farm land.

It took 5 years even to get to the stage of the house having mains water and electricity.



The largest room in the house is not surprisingly the library which was created out of the old stables.  The couple were not really party animals and it seems that only one party was ever thrown – to celebrated the end of the war in 1945 – a pretty good reason for a party!



There are 6 acres of garden. The only place you can see the whole garden from is the top of the tower.  Harold divided the garden into classical geometric shapes and Vita filled them with a wild romantic profusion of plants.



The Rose Garden is spectacular but the White Garden which is the earliest one is the most well known.

1 comment:

  1. How pretty! What wouldn't I give for a private library like that!
    BTW, I think it's Mrs. Google because everyone knows men are notoriously bad with directions. :-)

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