Autumn Programme starts with a great talk and a large crowd.

At our first meeting of the Autumn we were delighted to welcome Julia Bolton, Chairman of Beth Chatto’s Gardens and Asa Gregers-Warg, Head Gardener.  They spoke about Beth Chatto’s Gardens – past, present and future.  Julia, who is Beth’s granddaughter spoke about her grandparents’ purchase of land in Wickstead, Essex, on which they built their house and developed the gardens which are famous all over the world.  They began in 1960, starting to grow their own plants from seeds and cuttings and developing the different parts of the garden. 

Asa talked to us about each part of the garden – the Gravel Garden which was created on the car park is probably one of the most well-known areas of the garden -particularly relevant this year due to our dry summer.  Asa explained the plants in that part of the garden are only watered when they are planted and just after planting – lovely pictures showed the dry garden in each season.  Asa also talked about the Reservoir Garden, the Woodland Garden the Water Garden and the Scree Garden.  All of which contain different types of planting, for it was Beth Chatto who first coined the phrase ‘right plant, right place’.  Beth was a very good flower arranger who started a flower club in Colchester and she used her expertise at flower arranging to design the planting in her garden – looking at combinations of texture and form, not just colour.

Julia continued the talk by telling us about the education work that they carry out, teaching local school children about planting and growing.  She showed us pictures of a number of public planting projects that they have carried out in the Colchester area including on a new residential estate called Chattowood where the planting reflects the planting in the dry garden with plants that can cope with the dry weather and don’t require too much maintenance.  They have also planted two public spaces including on a roundabout with similar low maintenance planting.  The talks were inspiring and we were given useful advice on planting in a drier climate – plant small plants, plant in the Autumn and mulch. 

Julia and Asa answered many questions and now we are looking forward to visiting the garden on 13 June 2026, our AHS Summer Trip.