IN BRIEF
What Private walled garden, open for pre-booked guided tours. Where West Sussex. Size Just over an acre. Soil Highly manipulated combination of existing topsoil, sand and crushed aggregates. Climate Temperate. Hardiness zone USDA 9.
There is a whiff of existential angst blowing through the gardening world, highlighted by the heated debates that rage every time some iteration of a wild garden wins Gold at Chelsea. What plants should we be growing in our rapidly changing climate? And how can we balance the gardener's urge to create a stimulating and beautiful space with our responsibilities to the planet, and all the creatures that share it with us?
Four years ago, proto-rewilders Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell set out to find their own solution at Knepp, the 3,500-acre Sussex farm they famously withdrew from conventional land management more than 20 years ago. As the wider estate exploded with a sky-rocketing diversity of plants and wildlife, the couple