The adventurous planthunter Tom Hart-Dyke drew on his arduous experiences abroad to save his English home
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| Trachycarpus in 'Asia'
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'The first day they held a gun to my head, exactly three months into the ordeal, I opened up my diary in the centre pages and scribbled down my garden idea.'
'I can relate to what Jamie Oliver is trying to do with the kids in teaching them that meat doesn't come from a plastic bag. In a similar way I'm doing it with the plants. I love working here when it's open to the public. This plant doesn't come from Homebase, it's from Brazil, and it's great to let the visitors know this.'
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| The Gatehouse where Granny lives
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Lots of gardeners will tell you horticulture is a welcome form of therapy, but not many can say they took up a challenge such as Tom Hart-Dyke's to exorcise their demons.
Tom's family home, Lullingstone Castle in Kent, is home to what has come to be referred to as the World Garden of Plants. Set out in beds and borders that make up a map of the earth, the plants collected from Tom's many plant-hunting excursions are all planted in areas of the garden that represent their respective countries of origin.
Captured in Columbia
While hunting for orchids in the Darién Gap in South America, one of the most dangerous areas in the world, Tom and his friend Paul and their two guides were captured by guerrillas and taken across the Columbian border to Panama. Held captive for nine months, he was frequently told his days were numbered. It was then that Tom came up with the concept for his 'world garden'. 'The first day they held a gun to my head, exactly three months into the ordeal, I opened up my diary in the centre pages and scribbled down my garden idea. It wasn't something I'd planned to do before the trip, but I guess it must have been nestling in my mind somewhere – it's amazing what holding a gun to someone's head can do.'
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| Aerial view of World Garden of Plants ready for spring
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Mission to save Lullingstone
When Tom was released, he came back home to find the house and estate in a precarious position. Guy, Tom's father, was perilously close to selling the family home, so Tom, spurred on by his family's predicament, set about building his dream garden to try and save Lullingstone. Five years on, one television series and two books down the line, things have taken a turn for the better. 'We had 1500 visitors a year at that point, and all we had here before was a herb garden and small nursery where we sold plants in the summer. Our visitor numbers have now gone up to around 20,000 in 2006 – it's just amazing.'
It's thanks to Columbia (and being forced to keep his mind off being killed) that Tom's garden has come about, and is now saving Lullingstone. 'My experience in the jungle has changed the way I feel about home, in the sense of this tap-root I have growing and taking hold here now. I wanted to escape the drizzle, but when I got back after my capture I was so up for doing it and making this project a reality, but, without Columbia, it would be different, very different.'
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| Totem poles add winter colour to 'America'
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Self-taught gardener
Tom is a self-taught gardener, learning it all from his Granny, who's now 93 and still gardening! 'She gave me a packet of carrot seeds and a trowel when I was three, and off I went.' It's this detachment from mainstream horticulture that has allowed Tom to be experimental with his garden, and it's his enthusiasm for experimentation that has driven him on, waiting to see if things will grow, or even flower, far outside of their natural conditions.
Beds of continents
This year he's even managed to get his proteas to flower outside, putting it down to the unnaturally warm conditions and lack of frosts. 'They're so easy to grow though,' says Tom excitedly, 'If I can do it, anyone can.' The beds that make up the continents aren't to scale, but each is filled with an array of plants native to the countries within that continent. Australasia has a giant boulder, shaped into something resembling Ayers Rock, jostling for space with the fast-growing eucalyptus trees that Tom is enamoured with. He's so obsessed by gumnut trees he even gets together with his 'gumnut buddies' to discuss new species and all things gum-nuttey – and a chance for a chinwag over a cold beer. Walking around the world, a stone's throw away, you come to Asia, which is dominated by a mound of earth and rock, or Everest, made from old car tyres, while America nestles in the corner of the walled garden with a towering native American totem pole. Most of the plants are from seeds collected by Tom, or from donations, such as the Wollemi pine (one of only a handful in this country, while less than 100 survive in the wild), or the giant chusan palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), which was dug up and transported back from Bognor Regis on top of an old Vauxhall Astra by Tom and Adrian, a volunteer at the garden.
Plants in their natural environment
The garden is by no means an aesthetic masterpiece, but draws inspiration from nature. Tom believes seeing plants in their natural environment is crucial, and he's been lucky enough to experience this. He's spent most of his adult life exploring the planet looking for new species, bringing this knowledge back and applying it to his garden, as Tom explains: 'What soil are these plants in, what environment, sunlight and soil conditions in the wild? They all help you relate it to the plants you're growing here. It's that base knowledge of plants, the back-to-basics approach of where stuff originates that helps us grow the plants we've got.'
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| It takes three weeks to move all plants from the polytunnel into the garden
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Foreign plants in Britain
In Britain, we're lucky with the variety of plants we can get hold of from all over the world, but without knowing where they originate. Specialist nurseries aside, labels on plants don't tell you where they're from, and this is where Tom's garden steps in. Visitors can see what plant grows where, how it grows and with what, in its native environment, all shrunk down into a 2-acre plot.
Many of the plants, however, can't survive our environment and are plunged into the beds and borders and lifted into the polytunnel in winter for frost protection. Some areas have been adapted to suit the plants, for example Asia and Japan had 110 tonnes of acid soil imported for the rhododendrons, collected from Wisley in Surrey. 'The soil here is alkali, which was dumped from the river basin that the house is in. The soil we imported was very acid, almost too high and some plants actually died because it was too acid for them.'
Unorthodox methods
Tom's initial method of soil improvement did leave something to be desired however. Enlisting the help of two pigs to turn over the soil and add organic matter, the pigs escaped on to the adjoining Hart Dyke burial plot and started digging up Tom's ancestors! It's because of his unorthodox methods that Tom's been dubbed the 'Jamie Oliver of gardening'. Horrified, he laughs: 'I can relate to what Jamie Oliver is trying to do with the kids in teaching them that meat doesn't come from a plastic bag. In a similar way I'm doing it with the plants. I love working here when it's open to the public. This plant doesn't come from Homebase, it's from Brazil, and it's great to let the visitors know this.'
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| The lean-to greenhouse holds cacti and succulents to be planted out in summer
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No going back
Tom has recently come back from a trip to Australia and Venezuela, but it's been six years since Tom was last travelling, 'There's no way I'm going back to Columbia that's for sure. I can't believe we did it though, we were absolute tits for going in there, but you can say that now you're safe at home can't you. It's so easy.' It seems that Tom has come to terms with his ordeal, but being held captive has clearly had a profound effect on him. His garden is his therapy, a way of blotting out the memories by throwing himself into his work in the garden with boundless enthusiasm. 'You look on each day and live for that day, because you may not get the next, and I kind of know a bit what that feels like…'
Tom's plant tips
*Try and gain information on where plants are from and how plants grow in their natural environment. This will help you look after your exotic species at home.
*The excitement in gardening is the experimentation. Grow things from seed and take a chance – you might be surprised by the results.
*Have a go at growing exotic species. Our winters just aren't as severe as they used to be and they are much more likely to survive. As long as you're prepared to look after them in winter, they're easy. If I can do it, anyone can.
*If you need an outlet, or a way of easing stress, work in the garden and grow some plants – it's a great form of therapy.
Look further
The garden at
Lullingstone Castle is open from 1st April to the end of September on Fridays and Saturdays 12pm-5pm. The house is open 2pm-5pm. Wednesdays and Thursdays, Guided tours are available on Wednesdays and Thursdays by prior arrangement. The garden and house are open Sundays and Bank Holidays (except Good Friday), 2pm-6pm.
The six-part TV series Return to Lullingstone Castle was shown on BBC2 from February to April 2007.
Tom's new book An Englishman's Home, published by Bantam Press, is now on sale in the shops, £18.99, hardback.
denotes Subscriber-only content | Thursday 20 November 2008 | Help | Glossary 
