While visiting gardens in the Cotswolds is part of my job, this year I’d planned several trips further afield. None have happened and I’ve had to make do with armchair travelling instead. The latest excursion has been to the Secret Gardens of Somerset and quite a journey it was.
Despite being the county of my birth, I know little about Somerset and even less about its gardens. This wide-ranging exploration has filled in the gaps.
I was given a copy of the book in return for a fair review.
In her introduction, Abigail Willis, describes Somerset as somewhere that chooses its own route with gardens that are “bracingly non-conformist”. It is, we’re told, “not as ‘smart’ as the Cotswolds or Wiltshire”.
What it does have in common is gardens that embrace a range of styles from the Arts and Crafts ‘garden rooms’ of Cothay Manor to the “cinematic scale” of The American Museum and Gardens and Piet Oudolf’s trademark herbaceous perennial meadow at Hauser & Wirth.
At The Bishop’s Palace in Wells, gardening has been part of religious life for more than 800 years. The gardens have been radically overhauled since 2002, with new features and more planting, and attract more than 10,000 visitors annually.
In contrast, Midney Gardens is just 10 years old but already has been made a Royal Horticultural Society Partner Garden thanks to its “contemporary cottage design”. There are colour-themed sections and a potager with stylised areas, including the Gin Garden, based around juniper.
Some of the gardens have been pioneering: East Lambrook Manor, former home of influential gardener Margery Fish; Barley Wood Walled Garden, a Victorian kitchen garden that has reinvented itself and was one of the early supporters of zero food miles.
Along the way, we discover the challenges these garden-makers have faced from heavy clay soil to unexploded bombs and buried buses. Elworthy Cottage garden, now a favourite for plant-hunters, came about initially because Jenny Spiller wanted to keep goats, while Greencombe Gardens produces legendary leafmould.
Numerous photographs by Clive Boursnell bring the prose to life and help make this the perfect horticultural escape. It seems my list of gardens to visit next year has just got longer.
Secret Gardens of Somerset by Abigail Willis, photographs by Clive Boursnell, is published by Frances Lincoln, RRP £22. You can buy it here for £14.99 (if you buy through this link, I get a small commission. The price you pay is not affected).
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