Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Garden Life of the Day

After a morning tour of Vita Sackville-West's childhood home, Knole House, we traveled to Sissinghurst Castle home of Vita and husband Harold Nicolson where we spent a lovely afternoon wandering at leisure through the beautiful "rooms" of the Sissinghurst Garden .

A sixteenth century tower, and other buildings, with the most famous twentieth century garden in England. Sissinghurst garden is a prime example of the Arts and Crafts style. The garden was made on the site of a medieval manor and some structures survive. Harold Nicolson, a diplomat and author, laid down the main lines of the Sissinghurst design in the 1930s. Vita Sackville-West, a poet, a garden writer and Harold's wife, took responsibility for the planting at Sissinghurst garden. She worked as an 'artist-gardener'. Her planting design was brilliant. The historical importance of Sissinghurst Castle Garden comes from its role in transmitting Gertrude Jekyll's design philosophy to a host of visitors. The most famous and influential feature of Sissinghurst is the White Garden. It exemplified and popularised Jekyll's idea of using colour themes in planting design. - Gardenvisit.com

Garden features shown here from above and from within: The white garden, the cottage garden and cottage, the orchard, the lime walk, the yew walk, the rose garden and yew rondel.
























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