The influential gardener Sarah Raven moved to her home, Perch Hill in East Sussex, with her husband Adam Nicolson 30 years ago. She shares how this special place is intrinsic to her eponymous business, and the memories made within its walls and beyond. By Jessica Jonzen.
SARAH RAVEN WALKING THROUGH THE ‘DUTCH YARD’ AT HER HOME, PERCH HILL, CARRYING HELIOTROPIUM ARBORESCENS ‘REVA’ – HELIOTROPE. IMAGE: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
Where do you live and why?
I live in East Sussex. The highest point of the Sussex Weald and the most wooded county of England, it’s hilly and quite hidden, so you would hardly know you’ve got neighbours. I love that remoteness within such easy reach of London.
How would you describe your home?
We live between several buildings, quite ramshackle and informal, with a small farmhouse surrounded by barns, an oast house and greenhouses. Our main room, where we spend a lot of our time, is large and open plan with tons of light coming in from all sides. I love that and would camp outside (I’m happier out than in) if it wasn’t for the cold!
If the objects in your home or garden could talk, which would have the best stories to tell?
Probably the plates and bowls. We have lots of big family meals with friends, involving plenty of dancing and delicious wine and food. That’s key to our life here — good, mainly homegrown food, simply cooked and served with lots of colour around a line of different coloured candles, lit even in the summer.
Which part of your home or garden makes you happiest?
Right now, it’s the greenhouse full of tomatoes, cucumbers and herbs. I head out there as soon as I wake up (usually about 5.30am) to see how everything is. If I’ve been away, I pinch out my tomato shoots to release their delicious smell and water the vines to keep them happy. I’ll then collect the eggs from the hens and mix them with just-picked tomatoes for a healthy but hearty breakfast.
CONTAINER WITH DIANTHUS BARBATUS ‘GREEN TRICK’ AND HELIOTROPIUM ARBORESCENS ‘REVA- HELIOTROPE, ALL AVAILABLE FROM SARAHRAVEN.COM. IMAGE: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
When and where did you first learn to garden?
I come from a gardening family but only truly started when I got my own garden in my late 20s when I was training to be a doctor at Charing Cross Hospital in London. It was then that I started growing cut-and-come-again lettuce varieties, leaves (such as rocket) and herbs, and I got hooked. They’re still a mainstay of what I grow today.
Your home is intrinsic to your business; how does it feel to blend the two?
It has its pros and cons. The main pro is that I can wander around early and late and at the weekends when the place is quiet to really check out which plants are the most beautiful and which are growing healthy and strong. I need to develop loves and hates to guide our range, and this is when I do that.
It’s hard sometimes to switch my mind off when work is home and home is work, so I tend to have to holiday away.
What’s on your bedside table?
A very scented rose called ‘Duchess of Cornwall’ and a large vase of highly scented peonies ‘Duchesse de Nemours’. A bit of a line of Duchesses!
What was your childhood home like?
I was brought up in house with a very beautiful garden, just outside Cambridge. My father was a botanist and plant collector [John Raven], so it was full of amazing and unusual things. The house is Queen Anne and quite ramshackle, elegant in the front with high ceilings and fireplaces, and more higgledy-piggledy behind. My mother still lives there at the age of 94.
GAURA COLLECTION FOR POTS. GAURA LINDHEIMERI ‘SPARKLE WHITE’ AND GAURA LINDHEIMERI ‘THE BRIDE’ IN RIBBED METAL PLANTERS, ALL AVAILABLE FROM SARAHRAVE.COM. IMAGE: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
Do you have a domestic guilty pleasure or pet hate?
We allow our two dogs to start and end the night on our bed… yet I love clean sheets, so it means a twice if not thrice (in the muddy winter) weekly entire bed linen change!
What is the most memorable thing to have happened in your home?
I had my second daughter here in a pool in our tiny sitting room. Our house is small, so no one could get away from the noise! The baby was a week or so early and my twin sister, who was visiting for the weekend, has never quite recovered.
What makes your house a home?
Flowers, candles, books, scents and still-life bowls of beautiful homegrown fruit and veg.
(LEFT) POTS OF PELARGONIUM ‘ATTAR OF ROSES’ AGM AND ERIGERON KARVINSKIANUS – MEXICAN DAISY. (RIGHT) TERRACOTTA POT WITH SCABIOSA COLUMBARIA FLUTTER ROSE PINK ‘BALFLUTTROPI’, VERBENA ENDURASCAPE™ WHITE BLUSH AND DAHLIA ‘MYSTIC DREAMER’ SYN. D. ‘ZONE TEN’. IMAGES: JONATHAN BUCKLEY
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