My visits to Great Dixter

My favourite garden

I first visited Great Dixter in September of 2022. We had decided to spend a week travelling around Sussex and Kent visiting some of my ‘Bucket List’ gardens, to celebrate a ‘big birthday I’d had the previous month. It was wonderful, but it’s a trip that almost didn’t happen. After a very long hot summer, we suddenly had more rain than we (and our gardens) knew what to do with. Then Her Majesty the Queen died and everywhere was going to be shut. I told my husband there was no point in going to see world-class gardens at their very worst, even if the venues did re-open.

When the rain abated, I ventured out into my own garden and was amazed how quickly the planting was bouncing back. Desiccated, dead looking plants that I’d cut to the ground, were sprouting new green leaves. Lots of things I’d thought over were re-flowering.

We moved our bookings to start from the day after the Queen’s funeral and the trip was back on. We arrived at Great Dixter for our first ever visit on 21st September 2022, we walked in through the front gate and I saw the wonderful old house with its iconic porch. I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I had recently finished reading the book ‘Dear Friend & Gardener’. It’s the published letters of correspondence between Christopher Lloyd, the gardener who owned and gardened Dixter for his whole life and another gardening great Beth Chatto. Beth first wrote to Christo to disagree with him about something negative that he’d written, about one of her favourite plants. Being a bit of an irascible old thing, I think he must have loved having someone stand up to him, to argue with. They corresponded for many years and became good friends, despite being very different people with very different gardens. The letters in the book described both gardens so well, that it made me feel almost as if I knew Christo and his garden personally. Arriving at Great Dixter and seeing it for the first time was a moving experience.

Front Porch pots September 2022

I wanted to rush towards the front door, but an archway in the hedge and a glimpse of something colourful, enticed us to turn right. Down stone steps to a hexagonal pond with a paved walkway and borders all the way around it. Then you look up and there’s an unmistakable backdrop, so typical of Sussex and Kent. The pointed cowls of an oast house barn, used for drying hops. Kent is full of them and white wooden-clad houses. Dixter however, is actually in the Sussex Weald in the village of Northiam 9 miles from Rye. It’s 20 minutes from Sissinghurst Castle and Gardens, which is over the border into Kent.

The Sunk Garden was blousy, still full of colour with dahlias, zinnias, asters, hardy geraniums, grasses and so much more. After a circuit we were lead on through another archway to the back of the garden, but lets save some of the tour for my more recent visit.

Since visiting last autumn, I’d been very keen to see Great Dixter in the Springtime. I love tulip season and that slightly wonky oak porch, decorated with pot after pot of tulips was something I was very keen to see. Himself suggested an overnight stay. We’d really enjoyed our night at The Milk House, which was convenient for both Great Dixter and, being in the village of Sissinghurst even more so for Vita’s garden of the same name. Unfortunately, we had other things in the diary and we just couldn’t get that trip arranged.

On Tuesday morning this week (the last week of April) I had a free day, I woke early. I knew himself had other things on and this really was ‘Last Chance Saloon.’ If I was going to get to my favourite garden in tulip season, my favourite time of year. I told the ‘Hive Mind’ that is my My Real Garden friends in our chat group, what I was thinking of doing. (Always discuss with people that will give you the answers you want to hear). They overwhelmingly said “go for it”, I didn’t really need permission. In my head, I was already on my way.

Great Dixter is about two and a half hours drive from me and I was soon on the road with my favourite music cranked up, in a way that can only happen on a solo road trip. The journey was uneventful as I watched the miles on the sat-nav slip away. I arrived just before lunchtime, the car park was busy. Walking in through the front gate brought back memories of our lovely trip 7 months before, and I knew where to go this time. After a quick peek at the porch and its plethora of pots, I headed to the Sunk Garden once more. The last time I’d been there, the planting had been very different. I recalled that I’d done a double take, when I’d spied an elderly gentleman with white grey hair sitting on a bench taking it all in. It could almost have been Christo himself, enjoying his garden. But sadly not.

On this occasion it was busy. Lots of people admiring the massed planting of vivid lime smyrnium perfoliatum, against tulips in a variety of jewel shades. I was pleased to see the purple flowers of lunaria, which I’m growing for the first time this year, having been sent some seeds of the dark-leaved ‘Chedglow’ variety by a friend. I’ll definitely be using that idea, I’ll be saving seeds and sowing more for planting in the beds next spring. I’ll also be drying stems for the lovely paper-thin ‘coins’ of the seed pods.

I then passed on through the second archway, towards the back of the garden. Beautiful pots decorated either side of the steps and a lovely cherry was espaliered against the end of the house, with ever-decreasing horizontal branches like a tree that a small child would draw with a crayon. Past a sink full of tiny pale yellow species tulips and I turned left along the back of the house, heading for the famous Long Border, stopping only to marvel at a mass of orange tulips in two beds outside the barn. Note to self, mass plant tulips together.

As I approached the Long Border I spied Fergus Garrett, Christopher’s protégé, Head Gardener and the current custodian of Dixter. Unfortunately, he was talking to a group of people, so there was no opportunity to say hello. Probably just as well, I’d only have embarrassed myself by going all ‘Fan Girl’ and gushing.

The Long Border was a triumph, with large clumps of tulips, including a gorgeous burnt orange variety that I later learned was Cairo. (One for the shopping list), erysimum ‘Bowles mauve’, forget-me-nots and more smyrnium in amongst the shrubs. In places, I could see the unmistakable spikes of camassia coming up as if they were waiting in the wings, for their turn on stage. If only I was closer and could pop in every month to see the changes in the garden. There will undoubtedly be alliums a plenty, which is always compensation for the disappointment of the end of tulip season.

An archway in the hedge took me through the vegetable garden and on to the topiary peacocks to the left of the house. Iconic in their own right and brightened by still more gorgeous tulips plated around, along with giant fennel or possibly angelica? I’m not sure but it was much bigger than any fennel that I’ve ever grown.

Front porch pots Spring 2023

I bought my delicious lunch at the back of the garden under an open loggia behind the nursery and yes, of course there were purchases made. I bought smyrnium, because it looked so vibrant in their borders. It will be wonderful to say that the original plants came from Dixter. I was really pleased to spot a brunnera that I’ve been trying to track down for a while, it’s called Alexander’s Great. I had wanted it for my garden, as my oldest son is called Alexander and I’m thrilled that Dixter is where I found it. Buying plants at a garden creates so many more memories than just making an online purchase, doesn’t it? It’s like being given plants by friends, you always think of them when you see the plant in bloom again.

It was lovely to return to Great Dixter, I was blown away by the planting and the amount of colour in the garden. If Sissinghurst is a whisper of love poem on the breeze, then Great Dixter is a punch on the nose with a boxing glove of colour!

Have you visited Great Dixter, or do you have another favourite garden? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks for reading. Jules x