I remember once visiting a garden that was neatly divided into ‘his and ‘hers’ with radically different styles in the borders. More often I find that while both halves of a couple may work in a garden just one of them is really in charge and passionate about it. How different is the love affair that is West Dean.
Over the past 25 years, husband and wife team Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain have masterminded a project that has transformed “the sleeping beauty” into a popular West Sussex visitor attraction known for its range of plants.
In his foreword to their book At West Dean, Peter Thoday describes their work at West Dean as “rare if not unique in the history of professional gardening and possibly in the history of marriage!”, while Jim describes it as a “menage à trois”.
In fact, there’s a fourth member of the relationship: a love of horticulture and not just growing things but growing them well.
It’s this passion that resonates through the book, written by Jim – “we thought that directly co-authoring a book might be a challenge too far” – but you feel he speaks for both.
Rather than a chronological journey through the West Dean story, the book looks in turn at the elements that make up a garden, including the initial plan and vision, the importance of structures, management of lawns and use of shrubs.
Laden with advice from how to lay out paths using hosepipe and road marking aerosol paint to making compost, At West Dean shines a light on the work that is needed to garden at this level, highlighting not only the success but the failures and the lessons learned.
Every inch of the “jewel in the crown” glasshouses is hand-cleaned annually and there are 13 of them. Herbaceous borders are thoroughly staked with coppiced hazel and given the ‘Chelsea chop’ to encourage shorter plants and later flowering. Fruit on trees and vines is rigorously thinned to get a better crop – dealing with the glasshouse vines is “one of the most time-consuming, neck-cricking and least favourite tasks in the calendar”.
This attention to detail permeates every aspect of West Dean from the fact that every border, path and drive is finished with a homemade metal strip or stones to stop ‘edge creep’ to the neatly ordered tool-shed and comprehensive computerised sowing and harvest records for the vegetables.
Bringing all this to life are photographs by Andrea Jones that not only capture the beauty of the gardens including the wild garden, Peto-designed pergola, walled garden and arboretum, but also the work that goes into them. From atmospheric images of foggy winter mornings to black-and-white cameos of the gardeners at work, they are an equal partner with the engaging prose.
With 90 acres and a team of seven full-time and 40 volunteer gardeners, it would be easy to dismiss At West Dean as of little relevance to the average gardener. In fact, the advice is of use regardless of the size of your plot while the passion for just growing is universal.
At West Dean, The Creation of an Exemplary Garden, by Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain, photography by Andrea Jones, is published by White Lion Publishing, priced £40 RRP. Buy now (If you buy through this Amazon link, I get a small fee. The price you pay is not affected.)
• Review copy supplied by White Lion Publishing. All photographs copyright Andrea Jones.
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