The team from Beth Chatto Plants & Gardens in Essex have announced new plans to massively extend the garden with landscape designer Dan Pearson.
Giving a talk on Beth's legacy on the second day of the 2024 Beth Chatto Symposium, 'Beneath the Surface', Dan revealed the acquisition of a plot of land on the south side of the present site - a long, thin field along the existing boundary - as well as plans to create a masterplan for new garden areas there.
“We’ve got six and a half acres on a long-term lease from a neighbour," explains Julia Boulton, The Beth Chatto Gardens chairman and Beth's eldest grandchild. "The existing garden is seven and a half acres so that gives you an idea how big this will be.”
No designs or decisions have yet been made about what exactly will be created on the new land, and the Beth Chatto team are open to dialogue with individuals and the industry about the developments.
“The only thing that we have done so far is plant a native hedge all the way along the boundary to demarcate the site, but, that's it, nothing else.”
Julia is delighted to be working with Dan and his design practice, Dan Pearson Studio, on this new phase of development at the gardens.
“It's so amazing. I'm thrilled that he's agreed to work with us. The garden is so full of Beth's character, and she was so particular about it, and directed the whole thing. Although our gardeners are excellent, it was difficult for them to take it forward or change things that had been put in place. That's a lot of pressure to put on those people. So having Dan working with us is, for me, like having a comfort blanket.”
"We are thrilled to be working with the Beth Chatto Gardens to take Beth's legacy forward in line with her ground-breaking principles," Dan told Gardens Illustrated.
He spoke at the symposium of seeing Beth’s displays at the Chelsea Flower Show when he would visit as a teenager and how her naturalistic style – very unusual at the time - spoke to him. He became close with Beth before she died in 2018, and this new role as the garden's 'godfather' - a little like his consultancy work at another famous legacy garden, Sissinghurst.
“He was the only person really that would fit so perfectly," explains Julia. "And really, it is about not just the new piece of land, but it’s a kind of catalyst for new developments here.”
Also discussed at the symposium was the possible construction of a housing estate on the land in front of the garden, splitting it off from the road. This may eventually result in a new driveway route to the garden from the main road.
The plans form part of broader developments involving the garden and its team, including the planting up of a neighbouring housing estate named Chattowood, after Beth, with colourful, drought-tolerant planting schemes; and involvement in The Meanwhile Garden, a new pocket park and community green space, which was previously an unused brownfield site in Colchester.
But the new 6.5-acre field presents exciting opportunities to extend and bring on the original garden, created by Beth over many decades and famous all over the world for its 'right plant, right place' ethos, which led to the creation of the gravel garden, water garden and more. The site is also home to the nursery, where over 80% of plants are propagated on site, in peat-free compost, and visitors are likely to find unusual, rare treasures.
