Return To Splendour

CATHERINE COURTENAY returns to a garden which was a childhood favourite…and finds it is doing some maturing of its own

 

GROWING up in North Devon in the ’70s, everyone knew of ‘Dr Smart’s garden’. I went there many times with my parents and can remember the excitement of walking down the path to find the large lakes at the bottom of the hill. The fact that he lived in the house overlooking the garden, and that you might see this legendary figure working away, added to the awesomeness of the place.

Marwood Hill Garden (which has always been its real name), is still owned by the family. Jimmy Smart died in 2002, but the house and garden passed to his nephew John Snowdon who, although living in Australia, has kept the garden open to the public.

Dr Smart’s legacy lives on; this is after all a very personal garden, designed by him and with the help of former head gardener and now volunteer, Malcolm Pharoah. It’s filled with significant trees and plants, from hundreds of cultivars of camellia to magnolias, hydrangeas, eucalyptus and National Collections of Astilbes and Tulbaghia. It has more than 20 recorded Champion Trees, which means they are the biggest examples of their kind in the country. So much speaks of Dr Smart, but there are now signs of new growth, changes which indicate that things are moving onwards.

One of the biggest factors in this change is head gardener Joe Reardon-Smith.