The Gravel Garden: Resilience, Volatility and Breaking the Mould
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With gravel gardens becoming ever more popular and high profile, how can these schemes be kept distinctive and interesting? How far can traditional species of plants be pushed? How do plants cope with water stress and how do we approach more sustainable and climate-resilient planting?
Loosely inspired by the making of a small, un-watered gravel garden outside the main entrance of the Garden Museum, Matt was joined by a panel of experts including Åsa Gregers-Warg, the Head Gardener at the Beth Chatto Gardens; Dr Tijana Blanusa, principal horticultural scientist at The RHS and Charlie Harpur, Head Gardener at Knepp, to explore how the future aesthetics and practicalities of planting schemes like these can be approached.
The panel also looked at the legacy of experimental garden spaces; from drought-resistant planting in a former car park at Beth Chatto’s Gravel Garden, to the former croquet lawn on the Knepp Estate filled with crushed building materials and close to 900 plant species chosen with global warming and sustainability in mind.
Image: Matt Collins
Biographical information
Matt Collins is a garden, landscape and travel writer, and Head Gardener at the Garden Museum in London.
Trained at the Botanic Garden of Wales, Matt contributes articles and essays for publications including The Guardian, Spectator, The Times, RHS’s The Garden and Hortus. He writes a monthly column for the Daily Telegraph and reviews books for Gardens Illustrated.
Matt has several books published internationally by Pavilion Books.
Matt’s interests lie at the intersection between cultivated and natural environments; his latest book, Forest, Walking Among Trees (Pavilion) traces an intercontinental pathway between British trees and their wild-wooded counterparts, and was shortlisted for an Edward Stanford Travel Writing award.
Matt is a member of the Garden Media Guild.
Åsa Gregers-Warg is the Head Gardener at the Beth Chatto Gardens where she has worked since 2001. As Head Gardener, Åsa is responsible for the day-to-day upkeep and development of the gardens. Leading a small team of gardeners and trainees, she also works closely with the nursery’s Plant Production team, as many of the plants grown in the garden are used as propagation material.
Åsa’s career in horticulture started as an intern at Bergianska Trädgården (Hortus Bergianus, Stockholm) Sweden. Having completed her horticultural and landscape construction studies at Säbyholms Naturbruksgymnasium, she went on to work at Brunnsvikens Trädgård, a nursery and garden centre on the outskirts of Stockholm. Keen to further expand her plant knowledge, Åsa wrote a letter to Beth whose style and approach to gardening she much admired, asking if there were any vacancies. In 2001 she took up residence in the caravan next to Beth’s vegetable patch and spent the summer working on the nursery before joining the Garden Team full time. Over the next decade Åsa took on more and more responsibilities as Beth gradually stepped back from the daily running of the gardens.
Having worked closely with Beth over the years, Åsa has gained an invaluable insight and understanding of the garden’s underlying philosophy and planting principles. Together with her team, she continues to care for the gardens and pass on her knowledge ensuring that Beth’s legacy is being carried forward.
Dr Tijana Blanusa is a principal horticultural scientist at the RHS and leads the Ecosystem Services Research Programme, identifying plant characteristics that might be linked to better delivery of ambient cooling, rainfall capture and air quality and looking at the environmental value of gardens and urban green infrastructure.
Charlie Harpur is Head Gardener at Knepp, a trailblazing 3,500-acre rewilding project that has changed the way we think about nature and how we can heal our planet. Charlie comes from a farming family but trained as an architect. It was whilst working for landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith (who masterminded the design of Knepp’s walled garden) that he rekindled his love of plants and the natural world. Charlie then trained at gardens such as the Chelsea Physic Garden, before studying for the Kew Diploma. Returning to Tom’s design studio with a more horticultural focus, he worked on the planting of Knepp’s walled garden and was so inspired by the tying together of both design and ecology that he moved to Knepp.
When not gardening and thinking about habitats, Charlie is occasionally found running. He has been both British 100km running champion and a UK trail running champion. He likes running in hilly places.
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