The Garden
History
Tucked behind high walls just moments from the seafront, The Secret Garden is the last surviving example of the private pleasure gardens that once served the grand houses of Sussex Square.
Originally created in the 1820s as part of the Kemp Town Estate, the garden was once accessed via a private tunnel from No. 32 Sussex Square. It later came into the care of the conservationist Antony Dale, whose vision — continued through the Antony Dale Trust — ensured it would be preserved for public benefit rather than lost to development.
Today, the garden is a rare cultural and community space: part heritage site, part sculpture garden, and part green oasis within the urban environment.
If you want to know more about the garden and what we're up to, check out this interview with our new Chair, Anne Boddington, on Latest TV.
The Planting Scheme
Our gardener, Nick Dwyer, has created a large cottage garden around a central display lawn that was once a tennis court. The core idea has been to create a lush backdrop to the sculptures. The play of many different greens has also been encouraged to instil a sense of natural calm.
The planting scheme is inspired by sculptural forms with large structural varieties such as Miscanthus, Cardoon, Verbascum and Echium. Formal blocks of tall plants and densely planted shrubs play against the informality of wild flowers. These are encouraged as much as traditional bedding favourites as they bring a lightness of touch that prevents the whole garden from taking itself too seriously.
Allowing wild flowers and self seeders to populate a large garden such as this is not only sustainable, it’s also free! Bees, hover flies and butterflies all love the plants that naturally find themselves a home within the garden, making these plants a core building block of the garden’s ecosystem. To add to this nature-friendly approach we have now installed a new, almost-hidden miniature pond-zone to attract dragonflies if we're lucky. See if you can spot it.
