This blog is about what I can take from a visit to the world famous garden at Great Dixter near Rye in East Sussex. I had been twice before over the years but this trip was part of a group tour taking in eight famous gardens in Kent and East Sussex.
I won’t even begin to describe the whole garden here but, to give you an idea, the website lists 19 different areas to be seen ranging from a prairie, orchard, exotic garden, sunk garden and topiary lawn.
Let’s note here that my London cottage garden is 11 x 7 metres at the back and 11 x 6 metres at the front. So it’s just the one area at the back and one area at the front.
However, I’m interested to think what I can learn from Great Dixter and use in my own garden. Also to think about how I felt emotionally in that garden and how I want to feel in this one. Recalling that Dan Pearson talks about a “sense of place”, I am always drawn to notice how a garden makes me feel.
Pots
Their pots are famous and here they are
Colourful pots at Great Dixter in Kent
Great Dixter – pots around the front door
Pots around the front door at Great Dixter
So grouping pots is a great idea – tall and short – colour and greenery – and look how all colours are mixed together. The abundance and informality is very cottage garden style. I think I can see here lupins, chives, poppies, antirrhinums, salvias, grasses, campanulas, cornflowers and heucheras. This must be hugely labour intensive but possible on a smaller scale and grouping them together creates much more impact than dotting pots here and there.
Self-seeders
There were gorgeous self-seeded plants on the risers of steps. These plants will tuck themselves into cracks, and epitomise a cottage garden feel. There are ferns, Mexican fleabane daisies and the creeping mindyourownbusiness. This look is definitely something that I would like to reproduce.
Mindyourownbusiness on the risers
Lovely informal self seeded daisies
Casual combinations
I loved these combinations:-
Euphorbia and ferns
alchemilla mollis and white hardy geranium
Alchemilla mollis and white hardy geranium
Native pea and ladybird poppies
Emotional response
I admired the garden of course, and it is breathtakingly fabulous but I didn’t feel particularly comfortable in it. I felt rather overwhelmed by the profusion of planting and hemmed in with no space to sit or rest. The magnificent borders are huge and the planting head height as are many of the hedges giving the garden rooms an enclosed feel which I found rather oppressive.
We were very lucky to have been allowed in before the garden opened to the public so it was not crowded, but even so I didn’t feel a sense of peace or tranquility. That amount of succession planting involves a huge amount of labour and many people work hard to keep it as one of the greatest gardens in the country.
Do visit Great Dixter and other great gardens if you can but if you want a garden to potter in and sit and read a magazine in with a cup of tea then you’ll have to make do instead with a lot less perfection and several thousand fewer visitors, like mine.
Dear Julie
thank you for sharing these beautiful photographs and your impressions of the Great Dixter. I love these ideas but I do agree – the feel of a garden is perhaps the most important of all elements.
Which other gardens did you visit on your tour?
Love Leila x
Thankyou Leila. We went to Pashley Manor and then a private house called Timbers. The next day we went to Belmont (which I liked the best) and then to Goodnestone Park Gardensand then Godinton House and Gardens. On the last day we did a private house called Norton House and then Doddington Place, which I also liked very much.
My mind has gone blank, please remind me where it was we met (which I think we did). Best wishes, Julie
It’s so interesting to read of your emotional response to the gardens – just goes to show how a garden affects people differently! Dixter is one of my favourite gardens as I find there’s always inspiration to be taken away, although by late autumn the plants have overtaken the garden in some places and that can feel a bit overwhelming! Thank you for sharing, your photos are lovely, particularly the ferns and euphorbia.
Thanks so much for that Caro. Clearly the whole world loves Great Dixter so I didn’t want to be in any way sniffy about it but I felt much more at home at Belmont Gardens in Kent – much more my kind of place.
there are many times I have visited a garden on a hot day and flopped down to sit in the middle of a lawn. People find this most disconcerting, as if I had threatened to camp there. It is probably entertaining watching me get up again….
Thanks for your reply Katherine, I don’t think they allow sitting on the grass in some of these gardens. I loved Belmont Gardens in Kent because you could sit anywhere!
Hi Julie,
Lovely blog with some nice pictures and good ideas…not sure I have the time to be watering all those pots though, but they do look great!
Actually I’m giving up on pots – most things die and they are far too much hassle! have you seen Dig Delve, Dan Pearson’s blog. It is beautiful to look at. In a class of its own. I like your website too, wonderful pictures of course.