The passionate plantsman and owner of Wildside on his love of the outdoors and why he believes gardeners need to be bold, experimental and willing to take a few risks. Portrait Charlie Hopkinson <\/p>
People sometimes talk about having a passion for gardening, which generally means they like it a lot. But for true passion, few measure up to Keith Wiley<\/a>. His garden, Wildside<\/a>, on the fringes of Dartmoor, has been acclaimed as the most exciting and innovative in the UK. \u201cWe haven\u2019t even begun to explore all of the possibilities for where gardening can go,\u201d he declares, eyes glittering. \u201cWe\u2019ve all done it in the same way, year after year, generation after generation.\u201d At Wildside, however, he is determined to push the boundaries of an experimental \u2018style\u2019 of gardening \u2013 one inspired by close observation of nature, but with an understanding of form, a sense of narrative and a lyric intensity that lifts it on to an entirely different plane from more familiar forms of naturalist or otherwise gardening.<\/p>\n Over the past 14 years he has moved some 100,000 tonnes of rock and soil, three times over, to create the spectacular landscape that is Wildside \u2013 a labyrinth of serpentine paths and tree-clad hummocks, of ponds and canyons and shady groves \u2013 capturing the essence of a myriad habitats from damp Cornish valleys to the Temblor Mountains of California, from the flowering deserts of South Africa to the tumbledown barns of his Somerset childhood.<\/p>\n