Great Dixter garden in Northiam is famous for its meadows and Christopher Lloyd, its owner until his death in 2006, knew as much as anyone about meadow gardening. During his long life, he worked to build on his mother, Daisy Lloyd’s, vision of the connection between the created meadow and the surrounding countryside.
The flowering tapestries that he developed in the Great Dixter garden, surrounding the old house, were managed and developed over very many years, to bring on the variety of grasses, perennials and bulbs in the different areas of the garden. Always surprising to people is the one in the topiary garden, where the formal cut bushes are underpinned by the informality and flow of the grasses and flowers, altering through the seasons.
The time has now come to cut the meadows, though with more than four men and their dog, to encourage reseeding of the sward and the development of the meadow for the next year.
A team of female and male gardeners, armed with a mower, rakes and other suitable implements, set to cut down and rake together the knapweed and grasses, the birds foot trefoil and the rattle, so their seeds will spread and grow. There is a colony of orchids spreading, the camassias will flower again in May. The vista that is then left for the autumn and winter is indeed totally different, and really the only way to demonstrate it is through the pictures.
Christopher Lloyd ‘s account of his meadows is in his book, first printed in 2004 and republished last year with a full and interesting new introduction from Fergus Garrett, head gardener and chief executive of the Great Dixter House and Garden charitable trust. The last words should be left to Mr Lloyd: “To see a meadow in full bloom is a great delight. It is alive and teeming with life, mysterious, dynamic . . .” as he wrote at the beginning of the book.
Reference: Meadows:At Great Dixter and Beyond. 2016. Christopher Lloyd and Fergus Garrett. Pimpernel Garden Classics ISBN -13 978- 1910258033
Photos: Gillian Roder