Perch Hill and Dixter

Anyone who reads this blog will know that Sarah Raven has been, and continues to be, a great inspiration to me.  It was the random gift of a Gardens Illustrated Magazine as I prepared to move to a house with a garden that fostered my interest in gardening.  It was an article about Sarah Raven in that magazine that prompted me to buy her book, plant up a cutting garden and slowly become an obsessive.
She has also been consistently kind, encouraging and helpful to me over the years.  One of the main reasons therefore for basing ourselves in Sussex was so that we could fit in a visit to her cutting garden at Perch Hill.  An example of Sarah's generosity is that she agreed to me visiting on a working day at a time of year that the garden is not open to the public - at a time of year when it is mid changeover and the hardy annuals are being uprooted and replaced with half hardies which will bloom in time for late August open days.  A time, in other words, when the garden is not at its primped & photo ready best.
It was of course still beautiful - as you can see in the photos - and in many ways more interesting for me from a professional point of view!

It also allowed me to see quite how many people work day to day in the garden and to stop beating myself up that my cutting garden looks nothing like this.  I could also get a feeling for how they keep paths tidy (hoeing and spraying unfortunately - no magic remedies) and seedlings growing happily
Most of my photos are of gravel paths and compost heaps but Euan took this one especially for me
Pointed?
After that we drove to Great Dixter, the garden planted up by Christopher Lloyd within an Edwardian framework.  I have visited Dixter a few times and the last time came back with a longing to make a flowery meadow leading up to our front door - the meadow at Dixter had been studded with pink gladioli and blue camassia with buttercups and looked fresh and unbelievably beautiful.
This visit cured me - the meadows were all long, mussy grass waiting to shed seed before being cut.  While they can get away with it at Dixter, as a path to my door it would just look as though I had given up (a look I manage very well as it is)
In fact, though the scale and general gorgeousness of the gardens at Dixter mean that they don't look unkempt with the meadows, their mussiness does mean that there are not the plain green punctuations between flowery gardens that I so appreciated at Scampston and Sissinghurst.
It was though a garden which made me think about me prejudices - for example I don't like stripy leaves - yet I loved this combination
and I don't really like orangey/yellow and purple together - but with this silvery artemesia . . .

Comments

[Pam]

We're off garden visiting to Devon and Cornwall in September and I hope we have as much fun as you obviously had. What an insight to the realities of Perch Hill. Can't wait for the next instalment Jane.

P x

[Liz]

I've heard that Sarah Raven doesn't live at Perch Hill anymore but actually lives at Sissinghurst now. Both great gardens.

[Foxtail Lilly]

Perch Hill IS amazing, but i know how you feel, i have felt the same this year more than others with the bad weather. We cannot do it all!! We dont have a team of gardeners and i dont know if it would be the same? Sarah Raven doesn`t live at Perch Hill anymore and said she isnt allowed to garden where she now lives-how awful, too frustrating!!

[melinda]

I look at the gardening books and wish my garden would look like that but ......reality check - I do not live in a place with high rainfall so the garden will not grow this and that and the weeds in my garden would be gone if I had "help" and did it everyday too! LOL
Just found your blog and shall be reading it from now on - its great!

[Diana]

More lovely garden meanderings! I did a course with Sarah Raven, around the time she was just starting to make her name. She was inspiring.. so hands on, sharing so much knowledge and information and tips. And lunch in her kitchen was every bit as good as being out in the garden. How lovely to here she's so generous to you.

[suzanne]

Jane I have really enjoyed these past two posts - lovely photos and great descriptions/observations. It has made me even more determined to try and drag my SIL to Sissinghurst and Perch Hill next time I am visiting!

[Gardening Seeds]

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