After Christo

The swashbuckling dahlias still thrill, but Mary Keen, a lifelong friend of Great Dixter, is equally impressed with how the garden has evolved in the care of Fergus Garrett

- Mary Keen

The gardens at Great Dixter, Northiam, East Sussex

A LITTLE over a decade ago, the Heritage Lottery Fund granted the sum of about £4 million to Great Dixter Garden. At the time, the naysayers, led by Sir Roy Strong, protested that no garden could be kept in perpetuity. Others, who had enjoyed Christopher Lloyd’s weekly column on these pages for nearly half a century, imagined that it was his personality that made the garden what it was. Without Christo, Dixter could not be Dixter. But, before he died, the great man wrote that he did not want the place to be a museum. ‘The garden will change, it has changed a lot in my time,’ he wrote, adding that, ‘as long as Fergus is at the helm, I have no fears for Dixter.’

Great Dixter is a way of life with gardening at its heart. For Christo, and now Mr Garrett, it is for gardening, real innovation and best horticultural practice. And some.

‘We try to bring creativity into everything,’ Mr Garrett says, ‘but also the importance of community, the importance of kindness and the importance of a responsibility to the next generation. Christo once said to me: “I’m giving you everything, so that you will be better than me and I expect you to do the same.” Thanks to him, I have a fantastic team of gardeners around me.’