My Favourite Place:
The first time I went, I was in my early twenties and I was thinking about a change of career. I found myself looking at horticulture and questioning why I hadn't been pushed that way before. It was a real escape for me as a young mother; I used to go with my own mum who adored it and after she died, I visited all the places that we’d been to together. Great Dixter was particularly calming.
Dixter sits so well in its landscape. It’s an early Arts and Crafts garden, designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, with garden rooms and a long border; the planting in the pool garden is stunning – really full – and leading down to the stream there are beautiful meadows with old apple and pear trees. I save the nursery for a special treat at the end of the visit – it’s a bit like having pudding! But if I could only visit one part of Great Dixter it would be the exotic garden. At the right time of year it's enough to blow anybody’s mind.
I get really excited about the compost heaps and the Japanese method they use to build them. They create these enormous 10 foot heaps with a framework to keep it all in place – and I think they plant the occasional squash in there, too. It makes a huge, interesting addition to the garden, even if it is just a compost heap.
It’s a weird moment of feeling like you’re at home but everything has been redecorated. It's also a bit similar to when you go back to your parents' house and things have changed in subtle ways. I really like the excitement of seeing how the planting changes from year to year.
The container displays have very much influenced my garden. It’s a tiny urban space and you literally couldn’t swing a cat in it. Great Dixter has big pots, and they fill each one with one variety of something like tulips, then squeeze them all up, which makes the display look big and full. It's small-scale block planting for people who don’t have any soil.