Wealden Times | WT234 | November 2021 | Christmas Gift supplement inside

A Taste of the Mediterranean
It is possible to bring a little holiday magic into your own garden, as Sue Whigham explains
istockphoto.com/Alex
As the nights draw in, the
thought of a Mediterranean
holiday becomes more and
more appealing. The image in one’s
mind of being in Greece in the spring
is almost a painful experience after
the couple of years we have had and
fifteen minutes with the autumn sun
on my back in a Waitrose car park
today just didn’t hit that spot.
I’ve always felt incredibly lucky
to have lived near St George’s Bay
in Malta when I was at an age to
enjoy the wild flowers of the island
and think that wading through
fields of freesias and all manner of
fragrant herbs triggered a love of
all plants let alone Mediterranean
species, so it is particularly
exciting to see the new garden at
Sissinghurst has now been realised.
Back in 2018 Dan Pearson was
approached by Troy Scott Smith
who was, and now is again, Head
Gardener of Sissinghurst Castle
Gardens and the National Trust, to
re-envisage Vita Sackville West and
Harold Nicolson’s original dream to
have their own Delos at Sissinghurst.
In 1935 Vita and Harold had visited
Delos, a windy and rocky island
approximately six nautical miles off
Mykonos in the Cyclades which is
thought to have been the birthplace
of Apollo, the Sun God and son of
Zeus. The island is only approachable
by sea and is sacred in ancient Greek
culture. Vita and Harold were inspired
by the island, its history and the sight
of the remains of streets and buildings
enveloped by the native phrygana (a
type of local low scrubland). Delos is
incredibly hot for much of the year
and pretty tree-less. The air is clear and
the sense of history on the island is
intense. No wonder Vita and Harold
were captivated by the place and felt
that they wanted to build a garden at
home to remind them of their visit.
Their dream of building their ‘Delos’
was virtually complete by 1937 but
the combination of the imminent
threat of war and the fact that the site
was north facing and on the wrong
side of a high wall combined with
soil which was poorly drained, heavy
Wealden clay, meant that the garden
was not a success. It seems that Vita
wrote of her Delos in 1953 “this has
not been a success so far, but perhaps
it will come right some day”.
However, archival evidence kept at
Sissinghurst, combined with notes and
photographs taken by a then assistant
gardener, Josh Sparkes, on a field trip
to Delos, enabled Dan Pearson and
the Sissinghurst team to realise the
original plan conceived in the 1930s.
As the conditions on the site
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