Derek Jarman’s Garden. Dungeness.

‘ Paradise repair garden , and some gardens are paradises . Mine is one of them ’ . Others are like high-risk children – bodge by their parent , over - water and cover with noxious chemicals’ . Derek Jarman .

Dungeness is a bleak , but funnily frequent landscape . The area look like a wild but it is robust in razz and works life . It is the one of the largest expanses of shingle in Europe and is sort as the only desert in Britain . It come out into a head in the sea and behind it lies Romney Marsh . For age it was considered as a wasteland and people much preferred the large sandy beach and dunes down the road at Camber near Rye .

Camber Sands

Camber Sands

The closing off of Dungeness was probably the grounds that Dungeness Nuclear Power Station was build here . Apart from a few fishermens ’ huts there was not much here .

Dungeness Power Station

I think Derek Jarman was one of the first to fall for the charm of the situation whilst out for a pub lunch with the actress Tilda Swinton in 1986 . He had venture into Kent in search of a bluebell wood and on a whim decided to force back on to Dungeness . Prospect Cottage , an one-time fishernman ’s hut was for sale for £ 700 and the rest is history . At the end of 1986 he was diagnose with HIV , and he seems to have found neat peace and comfort in his strange new home . He wrote that for him , the bleakness was part of its good luck charm .

Camber Sands

Prospect bungalow

Many of the shack have been done up now , but it is still a wild , open landscape because hedge or fences are not allowed . Apparently Derek had always been concerned in garden so he set about create one in the shingle . The area is fertile in flora ; there are over 600 species of plants here . He tried as far as possible to use the one ones that are indigenous to the sphere such as this Sea PeaLathyrus

and the beautiful tusk Sea Poppy , Glaucium flavum .

Camber Sands

Camber Sands

Glaucium flavum

In the characterisation you see it with Viper ’s Bugloss , Echium vulgarewhich grows everywhere here and is wonderful for louse . Another ubiquitous plant is Sea Kale , Crambe maritimawhich has beautiful curly leaves . It is eatable , but Derek allege that because it is a long - inhabit plant life , it absorbs radiation here so close to the big businessman station . The proximity of the power station and the pylons glow out from it strike me as really sinister , especially as there seems to be a low Movement of Holy Warriors coming from the wire . Combined with the lonesomeness of the office it gives me the chill . Derek order it reminded him of a lining on the horizon and he seemed to enjoy its twinkling ignitor as even fell . The picture above is the view of the power place as you stand with your back to the side of the sign . Along this south wall Derek had the John Donne poem ‘ Busy Old Fool , Unruly Sun ‘ in evoke wood . Because Dungeness is an SSSI ( Site of Specific Scientific Interest ) there were restrictions on the plant that could be mature . To create shelterbelt he used plants such as native Elder , Broom , Gorse , and bow down Quickthorn . White leaved plants such asSantolinaandHelichrysum italicumwill withstand the salt - laden idle words .

What get the garden so original is the exercise of found objects as prowess . The whole garden remind me a bit of a movie set , which is appropriate as Derek Jarman was a motion-picture show director as well as an creative person .He loved the wonderful flints which you line up on the beach here and he placed them in circles like dolmens . He made a orbitual layer surrounded by pointed Flint which he visit dragon ’ tooth . He used Stone , wood and sure-enough hoary iron and anything he found , as he loved beach combing .

Dungeness Power Station

Dungeness Power Station

In one of those moments of serendipity , shortly after my sojourn , I was browsing in an second - paw bookshop when I found the Quran that Derek Jarman wrote about his garden.derek jarman ’s gardenwith photographs by howard sooley . This is a beautiful book that I thoroughly recommend . The photograph are superb and Derek wrote so lyrically about his beloved garden and how he create it . There are verse form he wrote too . A beautiful book about a beautiful garden .

Although Derek pass in 1994 his garden remains as a monument to him .

55 Responses toDerek Jarman’s Garden. Dungeness.

twelvemonth ago someone lent me derek jarman ’s garden with pic by howard sooley . read it changed my perspective on garden ornament and I was off on a 15 year jag of using found objects , hoary metallic element , debris in my garden . It ’s such a treat to see the garden again through your lens and to be intimate that it still exists .

I remember see photos of this family and garden the second I saw it in your post but I did n’t recall the back - story or the endearing poem on the side of the theatre . It ’s remarkable that it ’s still there . Landscape like this is n’t rare along the less - populate area of California ’s seashore but you do n’t usually see home and gardens with such distinct character there .

Oh I enjoyed your office Chloris . I came across Derek Jarman ’s book some old age ago in our local subroutine library . I borrowed it enough times to deservingness buying my own copy . As you say the picture taking is superb and the piece of writing is recherche . I ’ve want to see the house and garden ever since – a magical garden with a material sentience of billet . It must have given him great delight .

Prospect House

Prospect Cottage

It ’s operose to imagine how one would get inspiration such a beautiful space in such surroundings . DJ has done a singular chore in make an haven in such a bare corner of Kent and as has been say , not at all what springs to mind when I think of Kent . bully post Chloris .

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Derek Jarman’s Garden. Dungeness.