Summer in The Secret Gardens

A highlight of any visit to Sandwich has to be a visit to The Secret Gardens.

Nestled alongside the quay, tucked behind the high stone walls of The Salutation Manor House, these gardens are a delight to visit at any time of year.

But that wasn’t always the case.

Just a few years ago, these gardens, planted at the turn of the 20th century in the style of Gertrude Jekyll, were a veritable wilderness.

The productive vegetable garden was once no more than a pile of rubble and the Holm Oak Walk was totally shapeless and overgrown.

Neglected for decades, the gardens were indeed in a sorry state when purchased by steel entrepreneur Dominic Parker and his wife Stephanie in 2004.

Today, following years of investment – both in terms of time and money – the gardens are barely recognisable as stand as a testimony to hard work and dedication by a skilled team of gardeners who have not only breathed new life into the gardens but created a haven that even Jekyll herself could not have envisaged.

In four years, the gardens have undergone a complete metamorphosis and, whilst the spirit and style of the original garden remains, a number of more modern features have been added to create a fascinating attraction for both the keen gardener and the enthusiastic amateur.

In line with Jekyll’s original grand design, the gardens retain their many and varied ‘rooms,’ each with its own character, and visitors gain new and surprising experiences as they twist and turn their way through the tree-lined walkways and shady glades.

In Springtime, more than 40,000 bulbs poke their heads through the hardened soil to welcome the longer days and frost-free nights. By April, the herbaceous planting is coming to life and new colours are coming through in succession all the time, as the gardens burst into life on every level, from the miniature reticulated iris and grape hyacinths to the spectacular blooms of rare magnolia, and brightly bobbing heads of camellia and peony.

Although the beautiful ‘bowling green’ lawn is now pretty much how Jekyll and Lutyens would have imagined it, the new Tropical Border, with the incredibly rare Wollemi Pine, which dates back to the Jurassic period, the Persian Ironwood and the Indian Bean Tree, have brought a more exotic flavour to this otherwise typical English country garden.

Lake Patricia, created during the seventies, has an island which has now been turned into a meadow, while it is possible to get quite lost in the Woodland garden, with its mixture of evergreens and conifers.

The Gardens also include a stunning Yellow Garden and Rose Garden, as well as a kitchen garden, while the breathtaking White Garden, with its abundance of white, cream and silver foliage plants leaves a lasting, calming memory at the end of a rich and varied garden tour in which your senses are quite overwhelmed!

The Secret Garden, which extends to some 3.5 acres, operates entirely on organic principles and is a fine example of how healthy your plants can be without chemical intervention.

Head Gardener Steve Edney and his team use a compost tea watering system to keep bugs and aphids at bay, while recycling coffee grounds and tea leaves from the Garden Tea Rooms to help enrich their own fertilisers!

They aim always to have an expert on hand to answer visitors’ questions and share their own gardening tips – which are many! – and all included in the admission price of only £6! (£5.50 for OAPs and £3 for children 6-16)

The visitor experience at the Salutation continues to improve year upon year; a new gift shop offering exquisite eclectic gifts from around the globe opened in March and the glorious English tea rooms, with its fine bone china and mouth-watering home-made cakes has also been extended.

There’s more than one reason that the Secret Gardens of Sandwich are now among East Kent’s top tourist attractions and a cream tea on the terrace is the perfect way to end a perfectly English day out – choose from the traditional finger sandwiches and home made scones and cakes to the popular chocolate cream tea, a must for all chocoholics!

The Secret Gardens of Sandwich are open seven days a week throughout the year and visitors can always be assured of a warm welcome. In Summer, opening hours are from 10am to 5pm daily. For further information telephone 01304 619919.

Isn’t it time you got to know a little more about Kent’s best-kept Secret?

© Jane Shotliff 2010