Set around the Manor of Dixter which dates back to the 1450s, the gardens were developed from 1912, when it was bought by Nathaniel Loyd as an agricultural property with farmhouse attached. Since that time, Christopher Loyd who inherited the property after the death of his father Nathanial in 1972, developed a strong love for plants and as such became one of England’s acclaimed gardening writers and plantsmen.
Christopher Loyd met Fergus Garret in 1988 when he was visiting the gardens as a student, and their combined passion and motivation led to a lifetime of friendship. Since the passing of Christopher Loyd in recent years, Fergus Garret has continued to set gardening trends while challenging horticulture. He has done this by avoiding traditional planting schemes and literally reinventing the colour wheel by utilising combinations that go against the rule such as the use of pink and yellow! On arrival to Dixter, one of Garrett’s first challenges was to convert what was a tired old formal rose garden into a rainbow of colour that would be an exotic garden featuring Cordylines, Cannas, Dahlia, Musa, Eucalyptus, Verbena bonariensis (a characteristically Dixter plant) and others. This level of ongoing experimentation is what makes Great Dixter one of Englands much loved gardens.
I was spending two days at the gardens with the Wisley Diploma students on a volunteer weekend, but little did I realise in the middle of winter that the gardens would be bare, only outlined by the characteristic Dixterian Yew hedges. As a result, there were a number of other maintenance duties which take place throughout the winter, and the one I was assigned to would be making fresh potting mix (or compost as it is called here).
The first step in this process is to use a turf cutter to take the top off a meadow and then to stack this high and let it decompose. From this, shavings are taken from one end and spread over an area, and then top dressed with compost from the gardens which is comprised mainly of decomposed clippings from those same meadows. These two parts are then rotary hoed together before being shovelled through a screen filter. This fine material is the base of the compost, with peat, pine bark, grit, fertilisers and other additions made after it has been sterilised by a huge fire throwing machine. It is backbreaking work, but I think one would agree that it makes a supreme growing medium, whereby plants will grow out of the media into its new surrounding soil quicker. This has been found on site at Great Dixter, primarily attributing to the fact that they are being grown in essentially the same soil they are to be planted into as stock plants for the gardens ongoing replacement scheme.
The stock produced by the Gardens Nursery staff is sold through a small plant centre at one end of the gardens, where visitors have the option of buying a plant propagated and grown on site in Dixters very own compost. It makes for a very attractive and attainable souvenir!
There are many interesting attributes that characterise Dixter as such a progressive garden. Quiet possibly it’s most popular of these is the successional planting schemes which Christopher Loyd is famous for. Having written many books on the topic, Dixter is the garden where these ideas were born. In each season the planting schemes primary goal is to provide interest throughout the entire growing season. This means that from Spring through to Autumn as one plant flowering early in the season begins to fade, another pops up in its place to provide further interest. There is no doubt that the level of success is varied, and it is an ongoing challenge to find combinations that work well, resulting in an incredibly high maintenance garden where the love for plants is evident at every level.
The philosophy behind successional planting is exhaustive, but to start such a canvas as Garret explained to us, the first step is to identify what you want the garden bed to look like at its peak and work first backwards and then forwards from that point. In doing so, think about using as much variation in colour, texture, form, height, flower, fruit and leaf and also plant type such as climbers, evergreen, perennials, biennials and annuals so that you create a canvas which changes constantly. The key is to also ensure that it looks good if it were viewed not only in colour, but black and white which is where the varied design elements and principles come into play. It’s all about balancing the number of plants so that one doesn’t swamp the other and they live in harmony. For example, bulbs will often die off if the other plantings around them are too thick and don’t die down at the right time.
Great Dixter demonstrates a truly inspirational style of gardening, bringing forth every little bit of passion that England and Australia share for our favourite past time. Forget the no maintenance style of gardening; this is one style where the purpose is to create your own living landscape full of ever changing interest throughout the year. While it is difficult to create what Great Dixter does due to Australia’s varying environment, the love and care which goes into developing a garden is something that we must harness once more. As horticulturalists in the nursery and garden industry, and the primary promoters of plants, we have to recapture that passion for gardening by encouraging and inspiring our customers when they step through the door of your plant centre looking for something to buy.
Text and Photos by Anthony J Curnow
No comments:
Post a Comment