WHAT ABOUT THE WORK?

The quiet corners or “sealed units” are in the Dixter tradition of horticultural excellence, but once planted, unlike the Long Border and other intensive areas, they are never bedded out.

Some areas are still work in progress, but all the planting in them is meant to be permanent and labour is reduced to less than an hour a year, with perhaps some cutting back of unruly shrubs.

Weeding should be minimal, as all “weeds” ought to be welcome adventurers (see left).

Eyes are the best tools for this kind of gardening. But until Garrett writes a book with charts of growth, plotting plants into a seamless tapestry of all-year-round, low-maintenance loveliness, ordinary mortals may find “space ecology” less easy than it looks in the hands of the maestro. group include snowdrops, wood anemones, tiny daffodils and wild ginger with glossy leaves.

Garrett insists that the foliage should always be the strongest element in the picture and every time we looked at a group, he was adding and editing. He likes to allow fluttering things at the edges and pockets of space for the permanent extras, that offer flowery interest through four seasons, but the balance of the scheme might require another fern at the front to add to the foliage picture. Ferns are a big element in the sealed units. Especially in the shadier corners. But if you want to add snowdrops and early spring bulbs, choose ferns that lose their leaves in winter.

The late Graham Thomas pioneered the art of ground cover planting, using shrubs and perennials – a fine but serviceable way of gardening for low maintenance areas. Garrett has added Dixter sparkle to minimal maintenance. His exhaustive and continuing study of the way plants behave brings places that might be drab and static to fizzing life.