A Bloggers Meet at Great Dixter

Yesterday we went along to a bloggers meet at Great Dixter. Well known as the garden of the much loved garden writer and personality Christopher Lloyd, Great Dixter is however so much more than just the garden. A fantastic manor house at the centre, education and training rooms, a nursery, and wood crafts are additional strings to Dixter's bow. The garden itself opens to the public tomorrow on Good Friday, so there was a flurry of activity from the many gardeners and estate staff organising the finishing touches wherever we looked. Organised by Naomi from Out of My Shed the day kicked off with a talk by the effervescent Fergus Garrett, the current Head Gardener of Great Dixter and long time friend of Christopher Lloyd. We had not previously had the pleasure in attending a talk by Fergus, but what a fantastic speaker he is. Exuding the joys of experimenting with plants, Fergus focused in particular on how Great Dixter plans its succession planting, as well as highlighting some of the more unusual planting experiments. The photos of the gardens using cow parsley last year gave a truly ethereal feel. With the enthusiasm rubbing off on us all, the timings for the day quickly were forgotten and the talk lasted an extra half an hour or so over Fergus' time slot. However from there we were on to the delightful nursery, and a meeting with Mike, the nursery manager. Great Dixter's nursery is genuinely one of the most tidy and well presented nursery I can think of. The plants are grown hard, with very limited space under glass and no polytunnels to be seen. Clearly we couldn't wander round a nursery without selecting a few plants, and came home with an Oropanax, an Angelica, and also a Rodgersia. The nursery buildings, as many on the estate have a fantastic ancient quality. I assume many of them predate the 1910 Luytens designed extension to the original medieval hall, although they may well be of a similar era. Although bright and sunny the day was cold, so a welcome retreat for hot home made soup prepared us for the afternoons garden tour with the deputy head gardener Siew Lee. This was a real treat, being shown round the garden in a small group without any other visitors, seeing just how full and colourful the garden is even now at the start of the season. 

Siew Lee

The garden wraps round the main house and the house provides a fantastic backdrop and focal point. It is hard to spot where the medieval section ends and the 1910 extension starts, however to help show the history we were given a guided tour of the house by the Great Dixter Curator. As well as the tour itself Roy had selected a number of documents from the archives including original plans and sketches by Edwin Lutyens for the restoration and extension to the hall, as well as personal Lloyd family albums. To conclude the day we finished up in the 500 year old barn where we met Simon, who gave us a demonstration on working with green wood. We will feature the garden and house in more detail in a dedicated post soon. Great Dixter is open from 29 March to 27 October this year and more information can be found on their website. Gaz :)