Sissinghurst is the garden created by Vita Sackville-West
and her husband, Harold Nicholson. They bought a Tudor era property that was
nearly in ruins (it has a moat! And a tower!), fixed up the buildings without
much modernization, and then, with Harold laying out the hardscape and Vita
dealing with the plants themselves, made a garden that became very famous.
Sissinghurst is the home of the famous (among gardeners) White Garden. Vita
orchestrated a very lush garden, packed with flowers- especially scented flowers-
that looked like they had sprung up naturally. Of course, it took a great deal
of knowledge –and a couple of full time gardeners- to keep this looking
natural.
150,000 people a year visit Sissinghurst to this day. While
it has had changes- some plants didn’t do well, some just got old- the bones
and spirit of the garden Vita created remain in place. Sarah Raven is a garden
writer who has had the privilege of living at Sissinghurst for a while- she is
married to Vita’s grandson. She considers herself the co-author of this book;
she has mined Vita’s prodigious writings and included passages from them in the
text. With this, we can see what Vita was trying to achieve in the garden and
it’s a very interesting look inside. The book includes many black and white
photos of the garden, inside the buildings, and Vita and her family; a few modern
day color photos are also included. Very interesting for anyone interested in
garden design from the viewpoint of living intimately with the garden 365 days
a year.
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