The Dry Garden

The Dry Garden
in Blog Posts, In the Garden 628 Words

How do you garden in dry conditions? Beth Chatto had some solutions. I have tried out some of them in my own garden.

Gardening in dry conditions

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
like the crocus, it will burst into bloom;
it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy……..
they will see the glory of the Lord,
the splendor of our God.

Isaiah 35

When I visited the Beth Chatto Gardens in the early 1990’s this area was the car park. A year or two later it was completely transformed. Today it has become one of the most well known dry gravel gardens. This is one of the driest parts of Britain, with an average rainfall of only 50 cm and with thin soil over gravel. Not the most promising site for a beautiful garden! Yet it has now blossomed like the crocus and burst into bloom without any irrigation.

These plants are not cosseted by man. Nature provides for them. They are adapted to a sparse diet. Because our ‘soil’ is initially so devoid of nourishment we aim, as I have said, to give fresh introductions a fair start, but after that, they must fend for themselves. Most of them do.’

Beth Chatto
colourful border in dry gravel garden

“Gardening is the slowest of the arts and the most rapidly perishable.”

Beth Chatto

I have followed the story of Beth’s garden over the years and read her books. It has always been an inspiration and I have bought many plants online from her nursery – always some of the best quality. Her well used saying was

‘Right plant, right place’
Plants, like people, have their preferences and don’t like being thrust into the nearest available hole.

Beth Chatto

My Own Dry Garden

magenta Geranium spreading over path
Geranium Rozanne

Marjorie Fish once said: ‘If in doubt when planting a border, plant a hardy geranium’. The above is my favourite, a low sprawler Geranium Russel Pritchard and, everyone’s favourite, vigorous Geranium Rozanne.

mixed flower border

Another good cottage garden plant is slow spreader Geranium Anne Thompson, seen here with purple spikes of Veronica Ulster Dwarf , Achillea Moonshine, Salvia, Scabious and Anthemis.

Self-seeders

Hollyhocks in a cottage garden

Self-seeded hollyhocks, an essential for every cottage garden, with Stipa gigantea The Golden Oat grass behind.

Self-seeders can often bring some delightfully relaxed soft naturalness to the garden. Christopher Lloyd used to extol their virtues calling them  ‘a gladdening hotch- potch of colours, uninvited guests and gatecrashers.’ But some dead heading will be required to stop these uninvited visitors from taking over.

Our front garden during last year’s drought. How do you garden in such conditions? Beth Chatto had some solutions.
This self-seeded bronze fennel has established itself in the tarmac at the base of the garage door. It is obviously happy here and gives a grand show each year.
‘ This Euphorbia characias has seeded itself in just th right position at the front of the border. ‘Right plant, right place’
Teazle heads among golden oat grass
Colour is not everything. This combination of teazel and stipa is full of interest.
self-sowm blue chickory by path
Self-seeders so often do it best, as this chickory beside the path.
spiky blue Eryngium bourgatii
Watch your ankles as you walk past this prickly Eryngium bourgatii !

Gardening in Pots

But this dry garden approach requires doing without so many beautiful flowering plants. My solution is to grow these in pots regularly watered and fed. This display (below) includes my favorite Heleniums, rescued from the dry garden, during last years drought. They would not have survived otherwise.

mixed flowers in a pot display

tubs with mixed annual flowers

This ‘hot’ pot display of bright coloured annuals, grown from seed, meets you as you arrive.

Thank you for visiting this post. Visit Beth Chatto’s Gardens. Her dry gravel garden is only one of her beautiful gardens.

Wishing you a good gardening summer for:

“Gardening is the purest of human pleasures.”

Francis Bacon