Winter

Winter is, in many ways, more subtly beautiful than spring.

It is the best time to appreciate Walling’s design and the garden’s framework of extensive basalt stone walls. Herbaceous perennials are clipped back and mulched, lawns are soft with moss, and dried grasses, berries, bark and strong evergreens provide structure, colour and texture.

It is astonishing how many of the garden’s shrubs and perennials are at their best in the colder months – huge drifts of hellebores, Walling’s favourite pink erica, a single deep pink sasanqua camellia adored by resident wattle birds and eastern spinebills, winter blooming viburnums and clematis, violets, drifts of pale mauve crocus, pure white snow drops and magenta cyclamens, and the pale yellow, highly perfumed blooms of winter sweet, one of Walling’s (and Vita Sackville-West’s) most loved shrubs.