Sissinghurst Castle Garden is an amazing work of art located in the south-east of England. It was planted in the 1930s on the site of a dilapidated manor house. The garden is designed as a series of rooms. Beautiful brick walls separate planting areas designed around different themes and seasons. An open doorway acts as a frame for the view beyond as well as providing access to the next open air room. A high, central tower allows an aerial view of the entire site.

The plantings are exquisite, but for me the thing that makes Sissinghurst so special is the integration between the natural and the manmade. The built structures are in perfect balance between solidity and disrepair.

The exterior walls, gatehouse, and central buildings are robust, regular, and sound despite dating back to the 1500s or earlier.

The inner garden walls are of various heights, without roofs, have footings obscured by shrubs and flowers, and serve as support for climbing plants. In many cases they seem as organic as the foliage that surrounds them.

The garden walls denote age, but not decay. Although they provide a reminder of the larger building of which they were once a part, they create a sense of optimism, not loss. The walls are more beautiful for their close contact with nature and seem all the stronger for shedding the burden of their roofs. Rather than being constructed they grow from the ground like the plants they shade, frame, and support.