A (re)visit to Kilver Court Garden

After the long hot dry summer we’ve had it seems hard to imagine a time of endless rain and miserable floods.  But that was the precisely the situation at Kilver Court – an RHS partner garden –  in January and February last year, when the gardens and other parts of the site were inundated. 

Eighteen months on, I’ve been hearing great things about the new café and shop at Kilver Court so – ever alert to combining a garden visit with retail and coffee and cake opportunities – I thought I’d pop over to Shepton Mallet to see what’s new and how the gardens have recovered from their drenching.

It’s not my first visit since writing Secret Gardens of Somerset, but it is my first one I’ve written about since the garden changed hands. When I wrote the book Roger Saul, founder of Mulberry and the Kilver Court Outlet, was the owner, now rather wonderfully, Kilver Court  is back in the ownership of the Showering family, who took on the site after the Second World War, launching Babycham here in the early 1950s. It’s not just the gardening year that is cyclical!

First stop was the shop, formerly the Wriggly Shed, now Makers & Merchants, complete with friendly welcome and an enticing display of plants (outside), and curated selection of books, planters, and Niwaki goodies (inside). Stylish. Then it was time to head across the beautifully restored courtyard, paved in pristine York stone, for a shot of caffeine in the newly renovated café. The coffee (a nicely made flat white, thank you for asking) went down a treat in the busy but chilled Scandi styled café – wood panelled walls a whiter shade of pale and elegant wooden tables and chairs.

Out in the garden, things were also looking crisp and pulled together. Giant flower-filled planters point the way into the 3.5 acre gardens, immediately I noticed the thick yew hedging that frames the first section of the garden had been newly cut, their sharp lines setting off the blowsier borders below. In the parterre some of ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ roses were still flowering, although the box hedging was suffering: the combination of extreme wet and dry conditions aiding and abetting a problem that has been present even since I first visited the garden in 2019. 

Sheltering under a tree during a sudden downpour (something we have got rather unused to in recent months), I was lucky enough to bump into Head Gardener Chris Inchley, who updated me on developments in the garden as he took me for an impromptu tour.

In Kilver’s iconic Rockery – installed in the early 1960s by Chelsea gold medallist and rockery doyen of his day George Whitelegg – Chris is working to establish a better balance between stone and plants. On a simple level, this has involved cleaning up the stone pathways to delineate them and creating more space between plants, but some of the conifers, trees and shrubs have simply got too big, crowding out their neighbours and even obscuring pathways.

The acer – a real eyecatcher clad in its unseasonably early autumn colour – however will stay and Chris is planning a fernery around its shady understorey. Removing a mature feature in a garden that’s open to the public is no light undertaking and Chris averts any mind the gap moments by planting a small, young specimen near the plant that is for the chop; when this is suitably mature, the larger plant can be removed, its understudy ready for its moment in the spotlight.  

On the far side of Kilver’s other totemic feature – the Charlton Railway viaduct, built in 1874 – the Colourist Border designed and installed by Roger Saul is also being subtly tweaked. Here climate change is also making itself felt; noting the tropical foliage on a very happy looking banana plant in the ‘gold section’, Chris told me that last year it actually bore fruit (although sadly not large enough to be edible).  A little further along the blue and silver sections of the border have become a bit muddled, so changes are planned there, including the introduction of more white plants at the start of the silver. A whitebeam (Sorbus aria) or a multi-stem birch (Betula jacquemontii) will replace the straggly eucalyptus tree at the back of the border – either will look stunning here. 

In the shadow of the viaduct, an area of lush new turf is a legacy of the flooding; this being where the plant when the lake was dredged.  Returning under the viaduct, on the far side of the lake, the area near the shady stumpery walk and beside the River Sheppey is earmarked for snowdrops. Galanthus nivalis bulbs will be planted this autumn, hopefully ready to flower in time for Shepton’s Snowdrop Festival and the soon-to-be-launched (watch this space!) Somerset Snowdrop Trail. 

Back in the ornamental gardens, Chris points out several borders that have been renovated or replanted. Roger Saul’s ‘Pre-Raphaelite border’ has been lightened with the removal of a large rhododendron that had reverted to rootstock and underperforming in the flowering department.  This year, the Russian sage (Perovskia) and echinops have thrived on the conditions and on my visit were providing vivid blue tones to the borders, their colours picked up elsewhere by lavender hued dahlias. 

We end on a quick detour to the organic vegetable garden – closed to the public at the moment but opened for me! This has been completely redone since I last visited during my research for Secret Gardens of Somerset. The ‘tombstone’ raised beds have been elegantly reconfigured to echo the formal structures of the Parisian parterre and, filled with bought in compost. will be run on no-dig principles.  Only recently completely, the vegetable garden has already been supplying the café with fresh produce but will be up to speed next year says Chris, who plans on top dressing the beds with tine cored soil from the upcoming scarification of the lawns. 

At Kilver Court, the gardens, both edible and ornamental look in good heart and as appealing to visitors stronger as ever.  And, all being well, soon it will be with added snowdrops! Thanks so much for the tour Chris!