RHS Journals
The Garden
February 2008
Scene from a different perspective
Plantsman Keith Wiley’s dazzling new garden is the perfect showcase for his radical and exciting ideas on planting, as Phil Clayton discovers.
Images: Tim Sandall
We once thought the world to be flat. Go too far and you fall off the edge, sailors warned; that is, until brave pioneers proved otherwise. In the gardening world also, conventions are hard to break, but a few people challenge established mindsets and go on to change the way we look at gardens, often by making iconic statements of their own.
Devon, with its rolling hills, could never be described as flat – and it is one of our richest counties in terms of gardens. The warm, moist climate, fertile soils and multitude of sheltered valleys offer fantastic growing conditions. Not surprising then, that in 1978, a young horticulturist, fresh from university, should choose to come here to take up a head gardener’s position.
The first steps
Keith Wiley had just graduated from Wye College in Kent, a college that nurtured so many great gardeners; it was also where he met his wife, Ros. Keith’s interest in gardening pre-dated Wye – his father had a 1.2ha garden near Bath where Keith had built ponds and rock gardens since the age of 10. ‘You don’t really learn horticulture at university; a degree simply gives you self-confidence and an understanding of the bigger picture, and how to look at things from a management point of view,’ says Keith.
The Garden House at Buckland Monachorum, where Keith took up his new post, was the home of plantsman Lionel Fortescue from 1940 until his death in 1981, and it had an established plant collection. Here Keith began to hone his skills and experiment with planting styles. Over the following years he travelled extensively; the places he saw and the wild habitats he visited proved highly influential. ‘There are few people I aspire to be like – although there are plenty of gardeners I admire, but compared with some of the natural landscapes I have witnessed, their efforts seldom really amaze me,’ he says.
The board of trustees at the Garden House proved fairly flexible and, after the young Head Gardener proved his ideas and methods were effective, they let him have near-free rein. New areas, inspired by (but not re-creations of) natural plant communities and landscapes were planted with great success, such as the ‘sandveld’ that appeared after a trip to South Africa (see The Garden, July 2000, pp526 –529), featuring shaped, lightly-raised beds and drifts of Arctotis, Osteospermum and even North American Eschscholzia. The garden went from strength to strength, building an enviable reputation for its dazzling displays and innovation.
But nothing lasts forever. After 25 years, the realities of life in a ‘public’ garden proved frustrating. Keith’s expanding creative ideas were often thwarted by the success of the garden, which he felt compromised his vision.
Facing a fresh challenge
In 2003, Keith and Ros decided that it was time to move on, but they did not move far. A site just a couple of miles down the road – at first glance an unpromising 2ha field with a small orchard – became their new garden. The Wiley’s could see the potential immediately. ‘It was the light that first attracted us – it is amazing. We are on an open, south-facing slope, and after we raised the ground level by about a metre we now have near 360-degree views across beautiful rolling countryside, and vast, almost East Anglian skies; a complete contrast to the enclosed north-facing slope at the Garden House.’
The gently sloping site – christened ‘Wildside’ – is roughly divided into three areas, the garden split in two by a nursery with polytunnels and sales area. The lower part includes the Wiley’s temporary base, a wooden cabin, while the upper part, at an initial glance, resembles a moonscape with 6–9m banks of shale, giving a clue to what Keith eventually aims to achieve with his new venture.
Most of the work in the last three-and-a-half years has been concentrated on both the nursery and the lower part of the garden, bounded at the top end and sides by a planted, high earth bank, effectively separating it from the nursery. What lies behind is quite unlike anything I have seen before, and not that easily described.
It reminded me initially of the areas of sand dunes in which I played as a child – a series of rounded banks, some perhaps 3m high, others much less, divided by a network of narrow, sinuous paths. In some places the ground flattens off, but in others, deeper hollows have been cut. The deepest of all is to be a pond, fed by a winding stream. Some banks are so high they cannot be seen over, which adds an unexpected maze-like quality to the site. It certainly feels artificial, and yet it has a real synergy with the countryside it overlooks, the mounds and banks echoing nearby hills. The man-made feel is further emphasised by the lavish planting; few wild habitats support the sheer diversity and floral profusion to be found here, and with narrow paths weaving between the banks and mounds, you feel intimately involved with the plants. Low-growing species such as Epimedium and Erythronium (the Wileys have fine collections of both) plaster the banks in great profusion and in places, along with other taller plants bearing drooping flowers such as Dierama, can be enjoyed at more-or-less eye level.
Providing structure and a backbone amid the more ephemeral planting, choice semi-mature trees (including various conifers grown almost as outsized bonsai) and shrubs, such as Cercidiphyllum and selections of Japanese maple, are often placed towards the top of the mounds, and help to emphasise the undulating topography.
The range of plants grown is vast. In moist areas by the pond and streamside, drifts of candelabra primulas give way to Astilbe, Filipendula and Schizostylis and contrast with bolder-leaved Rodgersia. Away from the waterside, anemones, Sedum cultivars, daisy-flowered plants such as Anthemis, and choice Crocosmia such as C. masoniorum ‘Rowallane Yellow’ mingle with generous drifts of grasses including Stipa and Miscanthus. On sunnier, well-drained slopes grow diverse plants such as Watsonia, Rhodohypoxis, Beschorneria and horsetail-like restio Elegia capensis.
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