Protector of the Space: FERGUS GARRETT and Great Dixter

FERGUS GARRETT
Great Dixter
The Life of an Iconic Garden

Tuesday, June 21
21st. Annual Patron Lecture at Sotheby's

What was Christopher Lloyd to Fergus Garrett?  Friend, Mentor, Father-figure or  two people who had the same idea of what a garden should be?

As a garden, Great Dixter is intimate, exuberant, dynamic, experimental, inspirational and energetic. That is what you feel when you visit.  The reason I love it is because it's not perfect and it shows the visitor that imperfection.  It is the opposite of Sussinghurst.  There are weeds, tools and mistakes.

Fergus Garrett described the style of the garden as contrived informality.  It's an amazing feat to have deliberately chosen every plant, every combination and still the visitor feels randomness.  Plants may rule, but for me Dixter is about the unexpected.  Who takes 19th century topiary places it in a meadow?

"Now is different.  The style has remained.  Plants come and go. 
It's all about the spirit of the place." FG

When you listen to Fergus Garrett, you feel that Christopher Lloyd is in the room.  The passion that Garrett feels about Dixter is rare.  On Tuesday night he opened with, "Great Dixter is not everyones cup of tea."  It is mine.  It's Darjeeling, Earl Grey, Jasmine, Lapsang Souchong, Chai, and Gunpowder Green tea all rolled into one.

Garrett is looking ahead and mentoring as many young gardeners as he can.  He hopes one will take up the challenge of Great Dixter:  

keep it GREAT

keep it MESSY

keep it BOLD  

keep it RELEVANT

just keep it GOING!

FERGUS GARRETT is Head Gardener and CEO at Great Dixter, where he has worked for nearly 20 years, combining his exceptional horticultural skills and thorough knowledge of plants to create stunning scenes within the garden.  He passes along his expertise through teaching, guest appearances, and mentoring.  He has presented more then 350 lectures in over a half dozen countries and has been widely published in magazines and journals.  In 2008 he was awarded Associate of Honour by the Royal Horticultural Society.

copyright all photos of Great Dixter  Phyllis Odessey.

A story behind every plant:GREAT DIXTER

A STORY BEHIND EVERY PLANT:

Great Dixter

I met Klaus when we were both working at Hidcote as part of the garden team.  I came from Nymans and Klaus from Great Dixter.

We had a chance to compare notes and I asked Klaus to give me an idea of what it was like to work at Dixter.

Dixter is a working garden.  You can see evidence of this everywhere. 
Above:  The gate to the veg garden.

PO:  Can you describe what it was like to work at Dixter on a day to day basis?

K:  It was an amazing journey, from day one I was given interesting and challenging things to do.  I never felt I was given lesser work, just because I was a student.  Very often we work in little groups of two or three, but for big stuff all of us would work together.  The work was incredibly varied, not only did I learn how to dig or how to mulch, how to mix soil or how to propagate, but also how to choose plants and how to lay them out, the secrets of succession planting and much more.

A Dixter trademark:  Expect the unexpected.

Every job was explained properly, and there was always a very open atmosphere, critical questions or suggestions were always welcomed and answered.

A little "green roof" at Dixter. 

Unexpected combination of plants grown in pots is an indication of the quirky, surprising plantings at Dixter.

PO:  Can you talk about your impressions of the garden? 

The way it is planted?  To many people it looks like chaos.

K:  Great Dixter is a plantsman garden. There is a story behind every plant. Christopher Lloyd always wanted to have an exciting garden, full of unusual plants and plant combinations, surprising, highly experimental and full of contrast.  We are constantly trying out new combinations in many parts of the garden and some are replanted every year.

The paths at Dixter are narrow.  You feel enveloped in the garden.

There are lots of bedding areas and succession planting is very elaborate.  At the same time we rely a lot on self-seeding annuals, which, carefully edited, give the garden a very casual, wild look.  I think I really appreciate the complexity of the planting.  It is necessary to see how it changes during the seasons.

PO:  If you like Dixter, why?  What about the garden itself? or is it the people? or both?

K:  I like Dixter for many reasons.  The people are just amazing and it is an incredibly busy place, things are changing, projects are launched, changes are made.  It is buzzing with people that come to see what we are doing or just pop in, because they are friends. the garden is wonderfully varied: there are meadows, orchards, exotics, vegetables, and then all those fantastic plants that have been collected for almost a century.

Then of course, the feeling of experimentation, the constant trying of new things.

The exuberance at Dixter is overwhelming. The paths are narrow, you feel like you are almost part of the garden.

PO: Do you think Dixter is an "English" garden?

K:  This is a difficult question. 
What is a typical English garden?  
Are the rooms created by Lawrence Johnson at Hidcote typical of English gardens?  
The mixed border at Dixter is a feature of lots of English gardens, but at the same time it has a very contemporary feel, with all its wildness and meadows coming right up into the garden.

Maybe it's English, in its individuality and its independence of fashion, in the amount of love and work that has been put into it and the respect for its heritage.

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A word about the education of gardeners

Klaus, like many fellow gardeners, is a "career changer."   He started attending lectures at the Koenigliche Gartenakademie in Berlin.  He worked in Isabelle van Groennigen's nursery.  This lead him to lectures for Llndscapearchitects at the University.  He worked in the studio of Gabriella Pape and then applied to Dixter.  As many of us have found, working in a garden is a great education.

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All photographs copyright Phyllis Odessey.  No usage without permission.

Don't Tell Until I Ask: Plant Labels

The donation box at The Garden House for plant labels

Don't Tell Until I Ask

The BATTLE over LABELS
Hidcote vs. Nymans
and a word from Christopher Lloyd

Only one of the reasons I was extremely happy when I got to Nymans, is relevant to readers of this blog.

On my first walk around Nymans with Head Gardener, Ed Ikin, I noticed every plant was labeled.  I was elated.  I would be able to learn the names of plants, without asking anyone.

Nymans

When I arrived at Hidcote and walked around the garden with Head Gardener, Glyn Jones, I noticed none of the plants had labels.  Plant anxiety set in.  I would have to ask for help and within one minute I was sure help was needed.

I asked Glyn about the lack of labels.  "We don't believe in labels.  We think it takes away from the experience of the garden, of looking at plants individually and in the context of the overall garden design."

Hidcote

I started to think about what he had said over the next three weeks.  Was it true that plant labeling takes away from the experience of "looking and seeing?"

Plant label at Sissinghurst

In a single day, visitor after visitor ask the gardeners what a particular plant is.  The gardeners have been trained to stop what they are doing and answer visitor questions, and when they don't know the answer to find someone who does.  I have seen gardeners take the email address of a visitor who is interested in purchasing a particular plant or receiving seed from a unusual plant.  Gardeners in the UK are overwhelmingly generous with their knowledge.

Great Dixter no labels 

Christopher Lloyd on Labels:

The plants at Dixter are unlabelled.  I know this is a bore, when you quickly want a plant's name.  Generally there is someone to ask.  

Plant Label - Nursery - Great Dixter

Here are some of the reasons for my not labelling:

1.  This is my own, personal garden; I do not have the obligations of an institution like a botanic or National Trust garden. 

2.  I hate the look of labels.  Like a cemetery.

3.  They are expensive in terms both of materials and the time needed to list the plants and to write and place the labels.

4.  Plants (as against shrubs) need labels that are stuck into the ground.  The public removes them, the more easily to read, but does not replace them firmly or even int he right place.

5.  It is easier to pop a label into a handbag than to try and memorise it on the spot.

6.  The wrong label is read for the name of the plant to be identified.

7.  Visitors dart into the border, oblivious of footprints, the better to read a label that is out of reach from the front.

8.  If all labels are for that reason placed at the front, misapplication of names will be aggravated.

9.  Even when plants are clearly labelled, the public will still ask their name if anyone is around to talk to.  They're on an outing.  We're trying to work.

Sorry!

Christopher Lloyd

- from A Guide to Great Dixter

Nymans and Hidcote have differing approaches to plant labels.  I remain in the corner of labeling. I know that one day, the garden will become like the museum.  We will be attached to headphones, listening to podcasts about plants and garden design.  In the meantime, I enjoy having the information in front of me.