gardens

Book review! West Dean. The creation of an exemplary garden. By Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain, with photography by Andrea Jones. Published 2018

West Dean is an art college in West Sussex in the south of England. The garden is absolutely an “exemplary garden” with a spirit of place and degree of excellence in gardening that left me wryly humbled, inspired and quite simply very, very impressed when I visited in May 2019. I had previously seen it celebrated for the Harold Peto-designed pergola and a rigorous approach to formative pruning. The authors of this extensively illustrated book were gardeners at West Dean from 1991 when they started renovating the place after storm damage had been cleared, until recently. The book is about how the garden was planned and run when the authors were gardeners there.

It is typical of the book that there is a much more precise description that is usually provided of the prevailing weather, light and soil conditions. Of relevance to Limestone Garden is the “alkaline soil” and the way that it is “exceptionally free-draining”, “a bonus in the winter…very prone to drought”. Even if you cannot get to West Dean, a look at the pictures in this book will reassure you that it is possible to have a wonderful garden on free-draining calcareous soil.

I think it cannot be known who planned the landscape around the house as it is not mentioned although it is described as a “designed landscape”. The first substantive chapter of the book broadly describes the planning process when the authors moved to West Dean, with a clear intention of providing helpful advice to others who might wish to plan a garden. Elements of their design are discussed and illustrated in subsequent chapters – framing, movement (an entire, beautifully illustrated and interesting chapter on their paths!), structures (including that Harold Peto pergola) and water. A chapter on soil again gives illustration of good practice including plenty of pictures of compost and manure! Chapters then include ‘under glass’, lawns, trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs, the fruit garden and the productive garden; these latter two I found particularly interesting for their discussion of formative pruning of fruit trees (a striking feature of the gardens) and a note that as West Dean is an art college, the ‘productive’ garden is in fact managed to be beautiful rather than to maximise production.

I’m not sure how to describe the gardens without either using too many superlatives or failing to do them justice. The book explains some of the ‘secrets’ of their success, for instance that there was a deliberate consistency of materials (especially flint) in the garden and buildings, and I noticed that drifts of plants are also a striking and effective feature. All plants seem really healthy and properly cared for and everything is neat. Attention is paid to form and colour. There are a variety of shade and sunny areas and there is water. (At least, there was water while we were there. The book describes how the chalk stream (the River Lavant) dries up in the summer but the silt is cleared away to reveal the rather charming flint lining of the channel.) There are wild flower areas in the lawns. It really is a very good, well-managed garden, amply illustrated.

This book with its evidence of professionalism in the recent planning and running of a historic garden gives a strong insight into at least some of the basis for the striking cohesiveness and on-going excellence of the gardens at West Dean. It is not a how-to-do-it book but it provides inspiration (and even a reference for all that formative pruning).

Buckland, Jim & Wain, Sarah (2018) At West Dean. The creation of an exemplary garden. London: White Lion ISBN 978-0-7112-3892-3 RRP UK£40, US$60, CAN$78

https://www.westdean.org.uk/gardens

 

Villa D’Este

While on holiday in Rome it seemed like a good idea to escape the city heat and visit the Villa D’Este, in the hope of shade and fountains. We found both. The countryside alongside the roads between Rome and Tivoli this July showed signs of fires at intervals; grass was everywhere brown and parched. Some 500 years ago however, a river was diverted to feed a garden of fountains and this is one of the things for which Tivoli is famous. (The others are Hadrian’s villa, and travertine quarrying, with travertine being a type of limestone used by the ancient Romans and by us for decorative purposes.)

In this World Heritage Site which is the Villa d’Este, each fountain works thanks to the exploitation of the force of the flow of river water downhill under gravity; no pumps are used. Not quite every fountain was working while we were there, although plenty were (we did not feel at all deprived) and I do not know whether this was a response to the dryness of the weather or the well-managed maintenance schedule of very old fountains. It did not matter: we were completely delighted anyway. This garden is well worth a visit and was appreciated by all of us.

I tried to take notice of the planting: there were a variety of Citrus in pots. Hedges, various sizes, of bay and a tough-looking box. Beds of roses and peonies (not in flower in July). Hibiscus in full flower, well ahead of ours at home in England. Many trees which unfortunately I cannot identify in addition to the very characteristic form of the cypress, and other flowers too which are nameless to me. An unfamiliar variety of wisteria adorned the balustrade of the terrace just outside the Villa itself.

Bibliography:

Official site – http://www.villadestetivoli.info/indexe.htm

UNESCO site including a short video – http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1025

Garden writer Rosemary Verey’s garden was over limestone

Turns out that Rosemary Verey, garden writer, worked on calcareous soil over limestone on her home at Barnsley House, Gloucestershire. That makes her books and articles of great interest: I recently enjoyed reading Rosemary Verey’s Making of a Garden which was enjoyable and informative. She was not afraid to name-drop, but I find that adds to the ‘atmosphere’ of the book. The house is now a hotel and the gardener has a currently-maintained blog/website with info about ornamental and edible plants and plant varieties presently grown there. There are other pages with photos of plants and produce, so it is well worth a ramble round the garden website. One can visit the gardens too, of course.

For further info…

the Telegraph has a number of articles which include some personal details that aren’t exactly necessary to an appreciation of the garden or the gardening books, but may dissipate any tendency to find this gardener twee.

Country Life did an article in 2008 which (amongst other prose, obviously) gives names of varieties of vegetables successfully grown there.

Harold Peto: at home on limestone

 

Iford Manor gardenIford Manor near Bath was home to garden designer/architect Harold Peto from 1899 until 1933 when he died. He put his theories into practise to create a beautiful terraced garden on the hillside at the manor. He wrote a book about it too: The Boke of Iford. I was hopeful of finding a version of this on sale at the garden, but we found only very delicious ice-cream and cold ginger beer. Iford Manor gardenLimestone was evident in the flowerbeds (we were told that the soil is clay) and the flowers this August included several hydrangeas as well as Japanese anemones, salvias, Sisyrinchium, wisteria (as a hedge and as a climber) and others that I could only guess at. We had a good scramble round the staircases and many paths of this garden on one of the warmer days of this summer. The various garden buildings and structures provided shade, interest and focal-points. The Cloisters (pictured) are in a Medieval style while the gazebo is of its time (C18th) as is the limestone colonnade (early C20th, pictured): there is sufficient space and probably some clever planning so that these elements somehow do not clash. Upon straying from the garden through a stone archway I was reminded somehow by the shape of the walls of leaving the ancient city of Emporium despite that being of course on a much larger scale, and so here again I think there was some architectural magic. The sound of water falling into a pool made a pause in a patch of shade on a grassy bank almost ridiculously idyllic. There is a small orchard and an area of box woodland. While I would not call this garden manicured (there were several hatted people hard at work while we were there), our visit was enjoyable and a privilege.

 

Iford Manor gardenIford Manor gardenFor a little more info.:

Jane Balfour (1997) Harold Peto and his garden at Ilford Manor, website of the Association of Gardens Trusts, accessed 13July2016

Historic England (2003) Iford Manor, accessed 17July2016

Jean Vernon (text) and Heather Edwards (photos) (2015) Italianate gardens of Ilford Manor, website of Period Living, accessed 13July2016

Review of ‘A time to plant. Life and gardening at Holker’ by Hugh Cavendish, with photos by Grania Cavendish (2012)

This book is not just about a garden, it is also about the family that owned and developed it. The first several chapters are a quite personal account of a rather grand Englishman and his family, as they relate to the garden and estate at Holker in Cumbria. The author and his family have evidently got what it takes to run his ancestral stately home as a private and successful concern; and to be honest although I was looking for a book about a garden, the family chapters definitely provide recent historical context. Just before chapter 6 there is a great photo of ‘Petals of Rhododendron arboretum by Lord Burlington’s fountain’ and the subsequent three-quarters of the book has much more focus on the gardens. Designers and others who have contributed are given due appreciation. Later chapters are arranged as if on a walk around the gardens (there’s a plan on the inside covers of this hardback version), with notable specimens described and their provenance given if at all possible. It sounds as if there is a mixture of very rare and not-so-rare but much loved plants here, and the photographs make the place look really beautiful. An epilogue particularly mentions head gardeners and others who have worked on the garden and describe the physicality of the author’s bond with his plants, and also how this book was written at the point of retirement and handover to a younger generation.

From a gardening-on-limestone point-of-view the garden is described as being “on the cusp between slate and limestone”, with the ‘Old Park’ consisting of a wood growing on limestone pavement. There was a rockery re-created and it is tempting to think limestone would have been used in that. There are a lot of rhododendrons, magnolias and other plants not suitable for a calcareous soil, and of course they are mostly plants that are suitable for a very large space. However it would be of interest to visit to find out more.

 

Reference: Cavendish, Hugh (2012) A time to plant. Life and Gardening at Holker. Frances Lincoln. ISBN 978-0-7112-3284-6

http://www.holker.co.uk/ Holker Hall website

 

Another book review…of ‘Around the World in 80 Gardens’ by Monty Don

Monty Don is the presenter of Gardeners’ World (the main gardening programme on TV in the UK), and this book was published to ‘accompany’ another of his offerings, the BBC series of ‘Around the World in 80 Gardens’. I only saw a few episodes of that, and read this book as a stand-alone item. It’s great: interesting, informative and unsurprisingly very wide-ranging. Inevitably covering only a few (80) of the gardens of the world and only mentioning these few briefly (288 pages in total) and yet Monty Don gives thoughtful reactions and interpretations for each garden he has included. He spends time trying to understand Japanese Zen gardens; is careful to visit black as well as white South Africans; marvels in the wonders of the Italian renaissance and modern Dutch gardens; and generally visits every continent (except Antarctica) and tries to visit varied gardens everywhere. Colour photos are included and I sometimes found myself wishing (in a good way) that I could see around the corners to glimpse more of the gardens described.

Monty is only rarely uncomplimentary and I feel I should say that in contrast to his apparent experience, I remember wonderful gardens in Thailand! Or perhaps those were farms, rather than gardens. Despite having a few (probably inevitable) quibbles over some of the gardens that were chosen, I think that he did a good job with this book. It gives quite a concentrated experience. Having completed it I felt as if I’d had a rather wonderful overview of many and various examples of the approaches that a diverse and wonderful humanity applies to gardening around the world.

From a ‘limestone garden’ perspective: the soil is mentioned sometimes, and so it has some relevance. I am now keen to try out Biochar (or maybe just some plain charcoal) to create something like the fertile ‘black earth’ he found in long-abandoned Amazon gardens and so help my shrubs along.

Don, Monty (2008) Around the World in 80 Gardens. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 288pp. hbk. ISBN 978-0-297-84450-1

A review of ‘Garden Design’ by Sylvia Crowe (1958)

Dame Sylvia Crowe was a landscape architect and her strong understanding and knowledge of design as it relates to gardens is evident throughout this book. She explains principles and provides examples, particularly from Stowe, Hidcote and the gardens of Le Notre (these stand out in my mind), but also from many other gardens of many different types. An initial section on the history of gardening takes in styles from the far east, middle east and Europe. Principles of design and discussion of different elements of design follow. The final section on ‘specialised gardens’ perhaps reflects the diversity of her work, including private gardens, parks, allotments, communal and flat gardens, wild gardens, rock gardens, factory gardens and school gardens. If a quick look at the age of the book and the rather turgid-looking contents listing is initially daunting, it shouldn’t be, because this is readable and informative. For example, I learned the defining characteristics of Italianate and French traditions, which were not so clear to me until I had read this book. There are examples of plant species and planting discussed, but that is not the strength of the book. Chalk and limestone, and poor soils, are mentioned slightly more frequently than in other general garden books I have read. There seems to be a real commitment and lively interest in the design of gardens that is evident in the feel of the book and the little sketches that appear at intervals through the text to illustrate points of design. At one point an opinion on the hoi polloi is expressed in a rather unfortunate way, and concrete is (albeit briefly) treated with more respect than it might be afforded in a garden these days, but I found this a useful read.

An old but new-to-me book on gardening on chalk

I’ve just finished reading a 1960 book, ‘A Chalk Garden’ by F.C. Stern (the late Sir Frederick). Arranged into chapters that take us through the year, it’s loaded with plant names and descriptions and tolerances of difficult conditions prevailing, sometimes the details of who bred the plants or collected them, descriptions of how to cross lilies, and what’s in flower when. As well as a special chapter on lilies there are additional chapters on daffodils, paeonies and roses. Not a book to launch into if you don’t know any latin names, although it does include some black & white and colour plates. Inadvertently or deliberately, it provides an insight into the ways that our garden varieties have been developed. The garden it describes was created in a chalkpit, and the extent of the variation of substrate seems to be whether the chalk is rubbly or solid, or a cliff-face. The garden is still extant, see http://www.highdowngardens.co.uk/ .