MASIGNCLEAN101

Don't add water: be inspired to plant a beautiful dry garden

In the summer of 1990, Britain’s two most influential gardeners, the late Beth Chatto and Christopher Lloyd, were picnicking on the sun-baked coast of Dungeness, when they stumbled into a garden. It had no boundary: wildflowers drifted in like flotsam from the tide, arranged enticingly around a tarred timber cottage in the company of shimmering helichrysum and cotton lavender. “I made a beeline for that colour,” Lloyd later reflected, and the two wandered through, elated, scribbling notes and marvelling at plants thriving in the scorched shingle. “How surprised we were when the door opened and Derek Jarman stepped out,” Lloyd wrote. The film-maker, who lived at Dungeness until his death in 1994, was equally surprised by his esteemed trespassers, and welcomed them into Prospect Cottage.

Pulsatilla vulgaris.
Pulsatilla vulgaris. Photograph: Alamy

This encounter was remembered fondly by all three and, in preparing for the Garden Museum’s exhibition on Jarman’s garden, I’ve enjoyed reading their accounts, recorded in letters and memoirs. Most astonishing is a letter from Chatto to Jarman, revealing that her world-renowned gravel garden in Essex – perhaps the most well-known of all British dry gardens – was “inspired in no small way” by his planting. “I was so impressed by the robustness of your plants and the attractive contrast with pebbles,” she writes, relaying plans to convert her drought-ridden visitors’ car park into a garden demonstrating what to grow “where hosepipe watering is banned”. Famously, her gravel garden is never watered.

California poppy.
California poppy. Photograph: Alamy

To read that Prospect Cottage – recently preserved following a £3.5m Art Fund appeal – inspired such a prestigious garden is heartening. Jarman gardened not from expertise but admirable trial and error: roses failed, rosemary flourished and foxgloves beat the odds, while an observant eye drew in local natives: the hard-wearing valerian, bugloss and white sea kale (Crambe maritima).

My first visit, in 2018, had followed one of the driest springs in memory; witnessing plants looking decidedly sprightly was deeply restorative. With global temperatures on the rise, warm springs are becoming all too familiar: May 2020 was the UK’s sunniest and driest on record. For gardeners struggling under these conditions, gravel gardens such as Jarman’s are a comparatively low-maintenance, high-performance delight. Done right, one can retire the watering can and reach for the deck chair.

Sea kale.
Sea kale. Photograph: Alamy

A gravel garden needn’t occupy expansive, south-facing or exposed ground. A neighbour in London has achieved an enviable gravel display using euphorbias, creeping persicaria and lamb’s ear (Stachys byzantina) – and his 2mx3m front garden enjoys only half a day’s sunshine. Too much shade, however, would have hampered his efforts.

The lesson learned from Prospect Cottage (and exhibited in renowned dry gardens such as John Brookes’ Denmans and RHS Hyde Hall) is that the most successful gravel gardens are a threefold partnership. Always try to improve the quality of the soil, whether working with the light, free-draining kind, chalk or clay. Incorporating manure or homemade compost can help with texture, aeration and nutrient value. Dig this in after clearing surface weeds and before planting.

Euphorbia polychroma and allliums.
Euphorbia and allliums. Photograph: Steven Wooster/Flora Press/The Garden Collection

You then need a suitable palette of drought-tolerant plants. Species from the Mediterranean, South America and South Africa are naturally adapted to exposed, rocky environments: red-hot pokers (Kniphofia), for example, and lavender and germander. Dry-garden aficionado Olivier Filippi writes of Mediterranean plants, such as cistus, possessing a double-root system, allowing both a downward and lateral pursuit of water. Small and silvery foliage minimises transpiration and reflects sunlight – think artemisia or convolvulus.

Finally, the gravel forms a water-retentive top mulch. This is typically one to three inches deep and, in diameter, from pea-size up to the heavier shingle adopted by Jarman.

Visiting Chatto’s garden recently, I couldn’t miss the glorious orange California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Jarman used these to great effect, allowing them to seed about the shingle. Effectively a giant seed tray, it allows annuals and biennials to germinate easily.

Agapanthus and eryngium.
Agapanthus and eryngium. Photograph: Gap Photos

“We encourage self-seeding,” says Åsa Gregers-Warg, head gardener at Beth Chatto, “but if you want to avoid lots of weeding, use ground-cover plants such as nepeta, ballota, stachys and thyme, and top up the gravel.” For year-round structure, she recommends lavender and cistus, or the curry plant (Helichrysum italicum) that Jarman used as the backbone of his garden. “We plant small, and in early autumn or spring, when the weather is cooler,” she says, “allowing roots to establish.” Unlike traditional borders, diverse plantings can look spectacular in gravel, mixing together unlikely combinations of evergreen trees, grasses, succulents and long-flowering perennials: juniper next to stipa, gaura beside agave.

To complement the museum’s Jarman exhibition, I have put together a Prospect Cottage-inspired gravel scheme; sea kale bought from Chatto’s garden was the final plant of the puzzle. With rosemary, helichrysum, red valerian and California poppies, they’re spread over raised planters at the museum entrance. Spying sea kale at Dungeness, Chatto thought Jarman’s more spectacular than any she’d seen. “They never set seed like that in my garden!” she wrote. Similarly envious, Lloyd supposed they had been growing in the garden already. Probably true, but only Jarman had thought to make them centre stage.

Matt Collins is head gardener at the Garden Museum in London. Derek Jarman: My Garden’s Boundaries Are The Horizon runs until 20 September.

Gravel garden starter plants

Cistus laurifolius is a white-flowering Mediterranean species that provides year-round evergreen structure.

Stachys byzantina offers excellent weed-suppressant ground cover, with silver foliage and attractive summer flowers.

Stipa gigantea, the large feather grass, is great for height and autumn seedheads.

Eschscholzia californica and Nepeta nervosa ‘Blue Moon’ (right bottom) are sun-lovers that add vibrant seasonal colour.

Alliums christophii and sphaerocephalon are autumn-planted bulbs that look great in gravel schemes..

This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that third-party cookies will be set. More information.



from Lifestyle | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3gFO3f7
via IFTTT
Share This :
OK