geoffrey jellicoe

At the moment I'm just about to start reading a book called Gardens of the Mind about Geoffrey Jellicoe. There was a BBC series recently that looked at how gardens had changed through the decades. Each episode they made a "typical" garden from the period using traditional techniques (e.g., in one of the early ones, I think Victorian? they buried a truckload of rotting fish as fertiliser!) Anyway, the 1970's episode mostly focused on concrete, BBQ's, pergolas, etc but then it had this short interlude about Jellicoe's designs which apparently were in the grand scale of historical gardens but with the added twist that they were designed to fit with Jungian philosophy! Also, not just designing in terms of the visual aspect of the garden (light, plants, texture, etc) but also auditory... the sound that tinkling
water makes, the rustle of leaves, etc.

Now, I don't know how successful he was in practical terms as I've never been to any of his gardens, but the concept is intriguing. I can't work out yet if it's just a pretentious way of dressing up commonsense, but for now I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt.. :-) The garden of his they focused on in the BBC show was at a place called Shute in Wiltshire but it seems to be privately owned so hard to get to see.