Cathy's Art Diary

Charming discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their garden festival focusing on the gardens of four iconic female gardeners Annie Guilfoyle ably chaired the event and was   joined by Rebecca Lemonius, custodian of Long Barn (where Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson created their first garden); Julia Boulton, Beth Chatto’s granddaughter and CEO of Beth Chatto Plants and Garden and Claire Greenslade, former Head Gardener at Hestercombe Gardens designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Amongst the exchange of ideas they discussed what it was like to manage a historic garden and how they felt the influence of their predecessors. Lemonius said the wonderful quote of Vita “I hear her words but they are written”. Greenslade remarked on bad decisions made by Jeykll which they have to live with like planting in walls which breaks them. As ever the questions at Charleston were insightful and fun.  

Lovely small display at the Garden Museum on plantswoman Beth Chatto. In a project funded by Archives Revealed, The National Archives, The Pilgrim Trust and The Wolfson Foundation, Jane Harrison has catalogued the archive of Beth Chatto deposited at the Garden Museum and showed some of her discoveries in this small exhibition. The selection of books, photographs and documents showed how she turned wasteland in Essex into an environmentally sustainable garden and nursery and how she created a dry garden watered only by rain.