Tuesday, May 27, 5:00 am – 6:30 am Eastern – Spirit of Place at Great Dixter, Online
The Gardens Trust’s final series of A History of Gardens will consider developments of the recent past. Starting with the arrival of the sleek, functional style of Modernism after the first world war, the talks will move on to explore contemporary thinking on the challenges of conserving and restoring historic parks and gardens, the rise of ecological perennial planting, the reappearance of allusive gardens and how a garden’s ‘spirit of place’ can guide sustainable plans for the future.
Themes and exemplars in garden-making are more difficult to identify without the benefit of distance and time. But considering recent ideas and approaches is bound to bring a thought-provoking end to our History of Gardens. This ticket link is for the sixth series of 5 talks in our History of Gardens Course at £35 or you may purchase a ticket for individual talks, costing £8 via the links on the website. (Gardens Trust members £6 each or all 5 for £26.25). Ticket holders can join each session live and/or view a recording for up to 2 weeks afterwards. Ticket sales close 4 hours before the first talk.
Attendees will be sent a Zoom link 2 days (and again a few hours) prior to the start of the first talk (if you do not receive this link please contact us) and a link to the recorded session will be sent shortly after each session and will be available for 2 weeks.
The final talk on the series on May 27 is Spirit of Place at Great Dixter with Fergus Garrett. Great Dixter is a vibrant, pioneering and immersive Grade 1 garden, originally home to the great gardener and garden writer Christopher Lloyd, with a 15th century house restored by Sir Edwin Lutyens. It is in the vanguard of ornamental planting, gardening for biodiversity and horticultural education. In this talk, head gardener Fergus Garrett will discuss how understanding the spirit of Dixter – exploring the site’s history, sense of place and famed creativity – is helping him and his team map a sustainable way forward for this historic garden in the face of the climate emergency and loss of biodiversity.
Fergus Garrett has held the position of Head Gardener for the internationally acclaimed Great Dixter Garden in Northiam, East Sussex, UK since 1993. After Christopher Lloyd’s death in 2006, Fergus took over the position of CEO of The Great Dixter Charitable Trust.
