For several weeks now I've been reading a book about Sissinghurst Gardens written by Sarah Raven (wife of Vita's grandson, Adam), with extensive commentary included from Vita herself. (And I added to this yesterday by purchasing Adam's book as well.) I'll read a few pages, put it down, think about it, returning to it at another time. It's been like a retreat to another planet! Creative side-stepping into a world that I can't fully grasp because of course, I'm not Vita, I have no superior gardening knowledge and so often I feel my creative processes have been pulverized by the demands of daily living. Still, you learn a lot from listening closely to the words of brilliant people who poured their heart and soul into the project, laboring over it as only Vita and Harold could.
And now, as a bonus, I get to step into that world.
I wake up in Sissinghurst. At the Farmhouse that is part of the estate. (For details about why and how and what's it all about anyway, please read yesterday's post, below.)
(out my window)
I did not get much sleep. I almost gave up on loading all the photos last night, but you know how that goes -- you invest all that time to get it started, you want to finish it. Especially since this place is so good, so important to so much of what I do back home. I want to show it off here as best as I can. So I persevered. Until past 1 a.m. when I finally clicked "publish."
Of course, I could have slept in. No one is pushing me out, making any demands on me. But with dawn, I grew restless to be up. I need a boring tedious day to keep me in bed past the wee hours. A day at Sissinghurst is neither tedious nor boring!
Breakfast at the Sissinghurst Farmhouse is wonderful. I could have stopped with this:
Instead I kept on going, with this:
And now how to do this day... That's a puzzler. It's cloudy, but with delightful peeks of sunshine. I really have been lucky with weather on this trip! Temps are now hovering in the low 70sF (around 22C). Could you imagine a better day to explore a garden?
Still, I can't just walk the garden paths back and forth all day. Besides, Sissinghurst doesn't open its gates until 11.
Ah, but here is more to do here: Sissinghurst is vast, extending on all sides beyond the structures and walls within which are the "rooms" of the garden. The full estate lies on 460 acres of land and this includes pasture, lakes and forests. There is a public path that navigates the property. I want to take that path this morning.
Heading out past the quiet now Estate buildings...
... I pick up the trail as leads me straight toward the vegetable garden. This, too, is not part of the enclosed space for which you need an entrance ticket. (Meaning you can visit the vegetable garden any time and for free.)
To improve the soil's health, the gardeners here use the "No Dig" method of planting: you don't disturb what's already there but instead, heap compost onto the existing soil (the type of mulch or compost that has no weed seeds, which, for us at the farmette, would be impossible), and plant in that. The roots will work their way deep into the soil of course.
Let's take a look at how successful this is:
Very successful.
And this is how they keep the hungry beasts out of the veggie plants!
I see raspberries, being picked by an older woman. I ask if she wants help, but she says no, she likes doing it herself. Maybe she's afraid I'd eat more than I'd pick.
Such abundance!
Sweet peas, with a close-up showing the wet drops leftover from the night's rain...
One final look...
And now I pick up the path again -- initially, densely bordered by shrubs and trees, so that you see little of the landscape, but concentrate instead on picking out the sounds of birds. New for me: the Jackdaw and the Chiffchaff.
Soon though, the path turns and you see a panorama that takes your breath away (note Vita's Tower...)!
Talk about your iconic English country walk!
(The poplar: my idea of the perfect roadside tree)
And after a bit more, I come around to a view of the Farmhouse.
I dont immediately go in though. It's nearly 11 and I'm itching to have another look at the garden. I come to the entrance and as luck would have it, I'm the first inside. No, not pushy, just eager!
Hey, a daylily (see below)! I read that they systematically deadhead flowers here once a week. There's something to that: you do need to clean up a garden and encourage new growth periodically throughout the summer. But of course, day lilies offer a special kind of challenge. They're present here, but not even a fraction of the quantities I have back home.
Ah, the Purple Garden! When Vita wrote about planting one, many doubted her ability to create something exciting. Purple is a dark color. It can be dreary in the garden. And yet -- she succeeded. She pulled together shades of purple: some pink, some plum, some dark foliage. It's in fact one of my favorite corners at Sissinghurst.
(more from the Purple Garden...)
I come back to the Estate again in the afternoon. (One ticket allows you to go in and out all day.)
First, a coffee pause at the restaurant. The one that uses fruits and veggies from the veggie garden.
Then I look around once again. I zero in this time. On the entrance building: to the left, you have the library, aka as the Big Room, to the right you have the private residence of the descendants of Vita and Harold. I'm not looking to spot anyone there, but I am looking at the combination of roses and clematis climbing the two sides of this (private) window.
And here's a garden "room" that looks impressive from this new for me point of entry.
And this vine inside the first courtyard: I love its delicacy, even as it dangles such strong flowers. I look it up on my plant identifier -- True Indigo. Really? Is Kent, where I am now, so much warmer than Wisconsin? (True Indigo is hardy down to Zone 10. Madison is at Zone 5.) Yet another reason why Vita had it so much easier out here to grow with abundance!
Abundance. This of course, brings me right back to the issue of her wealth. Knole House, her beloved family home, is no small property. In fact it was one of the largest houses in England. (It sits just 20 miles from Sissinghurst.) Of course, because she was a girl, she could not inherit it. But as I already noted, she had plenty of money from her family. She and Harold were not lacking in anything, small bucket collecting cash from visitors notwithstanding.
And you have to wonder -- isn't it easier to be as "eccentric" or unconventional as she was, when you're wealthy?
I wondered, too, if losing Knole to a male cousin irritated her. Accounts of her relationship with Virginia Woolf uniformly attribute the break up between the two to political and social stances. Virginia was too "feminist" for Vita. This is peculiar to me. Vita was probably Virginia's first lover (outside her marriage). Vita, on the other hand, had plenty of affairs before and after she was smitten with Virginia. And who had the tougher history? Almost for sure not Vita. Virginia had been repeatedly molested by her half-brother as a child and she suffered from bi-polar disease to boot. Vita remained bound to her at some level until Virginia's death, but at the same time, she was planting flowers at Sissinghurst when Virginia drowned. (Vita did blame herself for this death.) Vita was always going to be well cared for throughout her life. (Not that Virginia was poor: you could say she was born into the intellectual elite of London.) Complicated stories run through these gardens!
I return to the Farmhouse for tea. It looks like today we have a walnut cake and scones (with cream and jam) again. I load up and take my foods outside. It's that lovely out there!
And again I return to the Gardens. My third time today! Just before they close. I look now to see if there is anything I missed, anything that I especially want to remember...
Okay, with that I am done. (My train leaves tomorrow before the opening hour here, so I really am done.)
And now I have to walk to the village of Sissinghurst, where I have a reservation at another local eatery. This one is called the Milk House.
It's not a long walk: I'd say it's about 25 minutes each way. But Richard told me not to use the road (narrow, with traffic, no space for pedestrians). Instead, he explained I should cut through the cattle field, then cross over to the forest. This should get me to the village in good time.
When I was a kid, I took solo forest walks all the time! I never gave it a thought. But in the U.S. I learned to be more cautious. When I return to Europe, I never know how much caution I should retain. I've done plenty of solo treks in Scotland. Is England any different?
Needless to say, I meet no one, except for two boisterous jumpy dogs and an indifferent owner.
(In Sissinghurst, the village)
People like Three Chimneys better, but I have to say, my dinner at the Milk House was quite alright. Lots of fish, lots of veggies. I drank Kent wine and that was good too!
We're entering the second half of August and still, it is totally light when I step outside after dinner. The sun in London sets at 8:20 today. (In Madison is just a little earlier -- at 7:58.)
Retracing my steps is easier -- I recognize the landscape.
The undulating fields with the short apple trees...
The forest...
The cow pasture -- all in the evening sun...
Just as in the forest, I walk with greater confidence on the return (I know the path, I know what I'm up against), so too, I write my post with the wisdom gained from last night's terribly long ordeal. I've been loading pics throughout today, so that I wont be pushing the job into the wee hours of the night.
What to leave you with from my forays into Vita's garden? I suppose I must go back to her climbing roses. They are everywhere. They are exquisite. They were loved by her and underappreciated by many.
With roses and love...
