There is a whiff of existential angst blowing through the gardening world, highlighted by the heated debates that rage every time some iteration of a wild garden wins Gold at Chelsea. What plants should we be growing in our rapidly changing climate? And how can we balance the gardener’s urge to create a stimulating and beautiful space with our responsibilities to the planet, and all the creatures that share it with us?
Four years ago, proto-rewilders Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell set out to find their own solution at Knepp, the 3,500-acre Sussex farm they famously withdrew from conventional land management more than 20 years ago. As the wider estate exploded with a sky-rocketing diversity of plants and wildlife, the couple gradually became aware that their private walled garden, which continued to be managed with traditional formality, was looking increasingly incongruous. So they approached Tom Stuart-Smith with a conundrum – how do you rewild a garden?
Set within 19th-century walls, the Knepp Castle garden had already been through a number of changes over the years, but when Tom and his team were called in they found a plot of just over an acre, divided by a wall, to create an ornamental kitchen garden with raised beds and grass paths, and a simple swimming pool garden with a large croquet lawn. In comparison with the exuberance of the rewilded land, it was decidedly lacking in diversity.
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Esta historia es de la edición Summer 2023 de Gardens Illustrated.
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STEPS TO SUCCESS
Enclosed within a rustic barn conversion, this courtyard garden contrasts riotous Mediterranean-inspired gravel planting with clean lines and a reflective pool
ANNIE GUILFOYLE
The garden polymath on the pleasures of passing on knowledge, the rewards of close observation and the circuitous route towards grounding her itchy feet
HEAVEN SCENT
As summer adds a new dimension to his garden, Nigel Slater reflects on the rewards of planting for perfume
Colour therapy
Ann-Maree Winter's joyful Australian garden became a place of solace and nurture in hard times
30 plants with interest all year
These hard-working plants provide several seasons of interest in your garden through flowers, fruit, foliage, bark and even spring shoots
PERFECT HARMONY
Rosarian Michael Marriott and TV producer Rosie Irving have very different ideas on gardening, but they have discovered the secret to sharing a single plot amicably
SUMMERFLOWERING ALLIUMS
Loved for their showy spheres, alliums have long been stalwarts of late spring, but now new introductions are extending the party through summer
Faith in the future
Marian Boswall's contemporary design for the garden of a former chapel respects the property's history while looking to the future
Summertime at Sissinghurst
Ensuring Sissinghurst’s famous roses look fabulous throughout the season is one of the many tasks keeping head gardener Troy Scott Smith and his team busy right now
FRESH APPROACH
Colm Joseph’s design for this new garden, which surrounds a modern house within a heritage setting, uses clever planting to give a historic site a contemporary feel