Greece-inspired garden completed after 91 years

A garden first imagined by a writer and her diplomat husband in 1935 has finally been completed.

Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson were inspired to create the Delos garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden in Kent after visiting Greece, but struggled to make it work and later gave up.

Work to reimagine the Delos garden began in 2018 and the final phase of the work has been completed and opened to the public.

"We really feel that the garden looks beautiful, that it's thriving and that we have made it come right," senior gardener Richard Gravett told BBC Radio Kent.

The expanded garden inspired by Greece is expected to "perform well and look beautiful" during high temperatures, according to its gardeners.

Sackville-West and Nicolson were inspired to create a Greek garden after visiting the island of Delos – the legendary birthplace of gods Apollo and Artemis.

According to the National Trust, which operates the gardens, the Kent climate and the site's north-facing exposure scuppered the idea.

Sackville-West wrote in 1953 that "this has not been a success so far, but perhaps some day it will come right".

Gravett said: " I think that's given us this wonderful permission and to go ahead and do this."

Gravett said he had travelled to Delos and could "completely understand" why the couple had felt "compelled to conjure the Greek islands here at Sissinghurst".

According to gardeners at the Grade I-listed site, Delios plants had continued to thrive in recent warm weather while others had shown signs of stress.

About 6,000 plants typically found in the Mediterranean have been planted, including pomegranate, cork oak and cypress trees, the National Trust said.

The first phase of the garden opened to the public in 2021.

Since then, a "ravine-like portal" filled with dry and shade tolerant plants has replaced a 1980s garage next to the Elizabethan Priest's House.

Head gardener Troy Scott-Smith said his team "looked to plants found in the deep gorges and ravines of the Greek islands" and those found in other shaded areas.

Additional reporting by PA Media

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