A visit to Dungeness after spending most of the Spring indoors hunched over a laptop was the perfect antidote for me with its flat horizon and huge open skies. Often described as “Britain’s only desert”, lying on the Southernmost point of Kent, Dungeness is one of the largest shingle landscapes in the world. Home to a population of vastly diverse flora and fauna with more than 600 different types of plant- that is a third of all those found in Britain. Understandable so, the site is recognised as a Special Area of Conservation and designated National Nature Reserve.
 
What is also unusual about the landscape is that it has not only one but two nuclear power stations. Simply named 'A' and 'B', the first station was built in 1963 and decommissioned in 2006. The second station still produces energy and is actually located on a designated site of special scientific interest, with birds flourishing in the warmer water created by the station’s outflow.
 
Alongside the nuclear power stations is an eclectic mix of buildings due to the area’s status under special protection - new buildings are only permitted where they replace existing ones, which must match in scale and proportion. Bungalows, wooden fisherman cabins and Victorian railway coaches all sit alongside each other to create a truly unique neighbourhood. The railway carriages appeared in the twenties when workers employed by Southern Railway were permitted to purchase the carriages, which they towed off the end of the line to create their makeshift holiday homes. The challenges of working in an area of conservation have forced designers to think outside the box, even the fifties coastguard tower has been transformed into a quirky two bedroom holiday let. Properties in the area now command a premium value, with original beach huts fetching upwards of £350,000. This has taken a toll on the local community with the number of residents falling as holiday rentals continue to rise.
 
One of the most famous properties to visit in Dungeness is Prospect Cottage formerly owned by Derek Jarman, a film director, artist, activist and at the end of his life a gardener. Falling in love with the desolate landscape Jarman bought a small Victorian fisherman hut in 1986 and soon began constructing his now famous garden. Discovering he was HIV positive that same year Jarman found solace in nature, in his diary, Modern Nature (1991) he recounts the therapy gardening provided him after his diagnosis. Describing the garden as his “pharmacopoeia” he filled it with a host of medicinal plants.
 
A relatively inexperienced gardener, in the beginning, the project stands as a testament to the tenaciousness of his character. Especially when you consider the challenging environment, the area is often plagued by drought and is open to the elements. Jarman began by digging holes into the relentless shingle to introduce manure, planting California poppies, lavender, valerian alongside hardy indigenous plants such as wild sea kale and the dog roses anticipating what would survive in the wild winds of Dungeness. The back garden seems to stretch out into the horizon with the power station looming in the background ‘at first people thought I was building a garden for magical purposes - a white witch out to get the nuclear power station. It did have magic, 'the magic of surprise’ explains Jarman.
 
With a long history of fishing, the main industry before the arrival of the nuclear power plant and the tourists, the shingles of Dungeness are dotted with small engine houses containing winches that haul the fishing boats out of the sea. Many now lay derelict, alongside boats and rusty machinery. Jarman made use of such salvage in his garden, alongside driftwood and flint he found to assemble his garden sculptures, which remains today beside the vivid colours of the plants.
 
The nearer he drew to death the more important the garden would become to him, even when gravely ill in hospital he would ask for portable oxygen to return. Derek Jarman succumbed to an AIDS related illness in 1994, leaving Prospect cottage to his partner, Keith Collins, who continued to develop and tend the garden until his own death in 2018. Collin’s set up a trust in hopes that the property and garden would be preserved, a campaign led by Art Fund realised his vision successfully raising £3.7 million to save the cottage. The hope is that Prospect cottage will be able to offer residences for artists, writers and of course gardeners, and in the same spirit of Derek Jarman and Keith Collins, the garden will continue to develop and remain a living work of art.