This blog post speaks for itself. It is a tribute to one of England's most beautiful gardens, Great Dixter. I can safely say it is the most inspirational place I've visited in England. It is a orgy of colour, texture and form and one runs out of superlatives to describe its beauty.
Yesterday I drove to Great Dixter with a friend. I have always wanted to go so it was with great excitement that I drove down there. Great Dixter was the family home of gardener and gardening write Christopher Lloyd who wrote over 40 books and articles. He died 10 years ago and the house is now under the stewardship of head gardener Fergus Garrett and the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. Great Dixter is not just an historic house but a magnificent garden, a centre of education and a place of pilgrimage for horticulturists from across the world.
As you walk up the path towards the house with wild flower meadow, cow parsley and ancient fruit trees either side you can see the crooked character of the entrance porch.
To the right is the sunken garden which is a blaze of colour, textures and forms. There is a lilly pond in the centre and narrow paths around the perimeter with barely space to pass. Actually the gardens are full of these narrow paths which you can barely see for the plant growth.
We had a long chat with one of the students working on the garden. He said the ethos for the planting is undulation and this is apparent everywhere. Also they aim for different textures and forms and mix up the colours as you can see from the images. He also said that they use pots to create displays which can be moved about to create different displays or replaced when the flowers are past their best. This is a very useful tip for any gardener. Here are some of the displays that are done purely with pots (hard to believe!)
The plants grow so high that you can barely see over them but the house peeks over the top from every angle.
The house and outbuildings are simply stunning - interesting chimneys, tiled roofs, rafters etc
In front of the house are more wild flower meadows with narrow mown or brick paths and ancient trees.
What I love most is the informal planting of mixed colours
And finally a few close-ups of flowers that caught my eye
If you have the chance to visit Great Dixter I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I ran out of superlatives by the time we left !!
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We’ve come to the 9th and final day of my day trips to Sussex to find tiny ancient churches. I certainly saved the best until last as these little churches blew me away with their beauty - in the centre of a village, in the middle of a field, hidden down a farm track, on the top of a hill ………
Apologies for taking so long to post the 8th day trip visiting churches in Sussex. The delay is due to my moving to Sydney to live in late October. As you can imagine it was a bit stressful in the weeks prior to departure. Once I arrived in Sydney I had to find a home to rent (another story!). If you are interested in following how I furnish my Victorian rental house in Sydney’s Paddington, on a budget follow me on Instagram (@angelabuntcreative.com
I’ve called Day 7 ‘Churches in Sussex’ for consistency but in fact it involved churches in Surrey and Hampshire! I had planned to visit Sussex churches but I decided to combine a visit to a friend in Hampshire.
After five of these day trips in search of historic little parish churches in Sussex, I couldn’t wait to research and plan the next one. I was still fixated on Sussex so this time I selected the following six churches and one historic house, Firle Place.
Day 4 included a visit to Great Dixter gardens. Given that it’s a fair schlep to Great Dixter, I identified three beautiful Kent churches to visit in the vicinity.
I was really starting to enjoy these days out on my own with my camera so decided to venture back into Sussex a week after the previous trip, armed with another list of churches.
If you read my previous blog post, Visiting Churches in Sussex (day 1), you will know that I am doing day trips to Sussex in search of the little churches often found in woodland, at the end of lanes, in hamlets or villages – steeped in history. I’ve focused on Sussex as it’s not too far to travel by car and it’s a beautiful county.
I decided not to have a summer holiday this year and instead do day trips to Sussex which is only about 80-90 minutes from home, on my own with my DSLR camera for company. I wanted to focus on visiting historic little Sussex churches in obscure places.
This post is for all you garden lovers. If you are lucky enough to live in London you have the chance to see the gardens of Petersham House, the home of the owners of Petersham Nurseries, Gael and Francesco Boglione. Their home is adjacent to the Nurseries and is a stunning Georgian house with extensive gardens, swimming pool and tennis court. They have a substantial vegetable garden which is used for the restaurant in the Nurseries.
I am delighted to announce that in September 2019 I became a published photographer, that is, I had my first ever photographs published in a book, The Gardener’s Travel Companion to England, by well-known Australian author Janelle McCulloch which features a variety of beautiful English gardens.