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BETH CHATTO’S GARDEN

ESSEX, ENGLAND

The Winter Garden The onset of March brings all gardeners back to the outdoors. Experience tells us that it is usually too early but our passion draws us to our potting sheds and garages where we dust off our ‘wellies’ and seek out signs of spring thaw. Perhaps we reach for our secateurs, a garden fork or rake. Regardless the mission has a similar aim, to shed our winter angst and breathe the air of hope that a new season brings. England in March normally allows an earlier taste of spring than we are favored in this part of Canada. Winter 2009 has not been as kind to the English as it unleashed colder winter temperatures and much more snow than is typical. In the Essex garden of nursery woman Beth Chatto what is apparent is that this garden stands firmly on it's winter legs. Signs of spring are surely around however the winter garden draws you through it and demands your attention. The strength of a winter garden is often judged by how well the plants die and which plants tolerate the seasons regardless of snow and cold. "The winter was really overstated" claims Ms Chatto, nursery woman extroadinaire. " We have seen winters in Essex where you couldn't stick a fork in the ground to harvest the parsnips. Yes we had snow cover of perhaps a foot but nothing like you would see in Canada". Meeting Ms Chatto was a big 'check' off my to do list. Reading her book, The Woodland Garden, Shade-loving Plants for Year Round interest, while undergoing my horticultural training in London, inspired me to return to my wooded garden and replicate her planting philosophy. On the day of my visit I watch Ms Chatto discuss the pruning of a willow. Though her directions seem elementary, her staff listen with reverence. I feel like a spy hoping to gather intelligence to bring back with me to my garden. Later I find her bent over what seems like a perennial bed looking for signs of spring. She explains, with paper and pencil in hand, that she is spending time looking for 'replacements'. Perhaps the frost has done some damage. So many things come to mind when I walk around her garden. The scree garden, designed by Ms Chatto's late husband, Andrew, now lovingly tended by Ms Chatto, tugs at my heart. Planted here are mostly alpine and sun loving Mediterranean plants. The hardscape is recycled local paving and gravel. A plaque commemorates his work in this part of the garden and reminds me that we can live on through what we create. The bones, the real structure of the garden dominate this time of year. The deepest green is reserved for the yew. The yews serve as fantastic screens to the holly whose rippled edged leaves add a textured layer to the screen behind it. The early flowering shrubs add delicate structure to the winter garden. Imagine an organic system of connectivity through the horizontal branches of the yellow flowered hammamelis reaching over the newly emerging daffodils and painting a multilayered palette of yellow, brown and green. Many fine specimen trees stand, naked. Their full beauty perhaps best seen in a different season, the eye is nonetheless rewarded by the many visitors who perch for a moment’s rest. It is always a starting point in garden design to consider the space. Working with and adding structure must be considered first. The ephemeral is always secondary. I feel fortunate to have seen the structure of Ms Chatto’s garden minus the distractions of the dressings. The winter garden reveals what is fundamental to good garden design and from there any gardener can build.