The Poetry Lover's Garden

From the show

• Dry stone walls planted with ferns, violas and ivy-leaved toad flax
• Contemporary water feature made of reflective metal providing soothing sounds
• Plantings of dark purple Fritillaria persica in large pots and the borders
• Unusual central lounger in a contemporary style
• A small metal gate hints at a another part of the garden to visit

At the garden

The Poetry Lover’s Garden presents a tranquil retreat in which to sit outside in the late afternoon sunshine reading poetry to the sound of water. It combines formal structure with relaxed planting using both modern and traditional materials.

Rooftop-pruned lime trees reference the garden’s inspiration – Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s romantic poem This Lime Tree Bower My Prison. The garden alludes to a world beyond while creating a meditative space in which nature, the poem and the imagination come together.

References found in the poem include ivy-clad dry-stone walls, a waterfall in the form of a stainless-steel water feature, and beanflowers, while polished concrete represents ease, modernity and reflection. Gates offer a hint of escape into a less-secluded world and the pleasures of human contact. All these elements conjure the uplifting spirituality of the dramatic conclusion of the poem, leaving the viewer afloat on the power of the imagination.