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Sissinghurst is famous for its "garden rooms". The Nicolson’s actually lived in these rooms which they created among the ruins of a Tudor manor house. The Entry Courtyard functioned as their foyer, the Inner Courtyard as their grand hall, the White Garden as their dining room, and the Cottage Garden as their sitting room. The Lime Walk, which was begun in 1936, served as their grand gallery, echoing the vanished grand gallery which had been the glory of the Tudor manor house.
It is not certain how mature the Lime Walk was at the outbreak of World War II. Like the rest of Sissinghurst's garden rooms, the bulbs and herbaceous plants were neglected during the war. The gardeners were in the military and Harold's responsibilities as a member of Parliament kept him busy. Vita focused her gardening efforts on keeping the hedges pruned and I assume that she also kept the lime trees pruned.
The Lime Walk originally featured featured straight rows of lime trees (Tilia x europea), these were replaced in the late 1970s by Tilia x platyphyllos 'Rubra' which is more resistant to disease. The new lime trees were trained in the same manner as the earlier trees; the trunks of the trees were kept free of branches to a height of 2.2 meters (7 feet 2 inches), above that height, three rows of branches are trained on three horizontal wires. This training method is known as pleaching; the resulting effect is like a narrow hedge on stilts.
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