Beth Chatto's Green Tapestry Revisited

First published in 1989, Beth Chatto's Green Tapestry describes in words and photographs how the author created her now world-famous gardens, and the thinking that lay behind it. This new edition, published to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the opening of Beth Chatto's garden, brings the story up to date. Given the current issues about climate change, Beth’s ethos of choosing those plants that are best suited to the prevailing conditions could not be more timely. This new edition, updated by David Ward, Beth’s former head gardener, and Asa Gregers-Warg, the current head gardener, who both worked with Beth during her lifetime and continue to work with the Beth Chatto Trust, also highlights the changes that have been made in the 30 years since it was first published, with one major new element, the Gravel Garden, created from what used be known as the Entrance Garden, and the Reservoir Garden, substantially revised and replanted, along with the Woodland Garden, also revised and extended. Includes original and new planting plans and updated practical Plant Guide.

"After years of tracing garden plants back to their parents in the wild, Chatto knows the preferred growing conditions for individual species of perennials. . . . Amid what seems a crowd of plants, each chapter spotlights one or two of Chatto's favorites, such as hellebores, waterside grasses, ferns, euphorbias and fritillarias. This feature, along with a plant guide at the end of the book (where useful lists of companion plants join individual plant profiles), accompanies the lush, abundant photographs. . . . Will suit American gardens in zones 4-7." --Publishers Weekly

 

Beth Chatto (1923-2018) was born in Essex and lived there throughout her long life. Thirty years before The Green Tapestry was written, she set about transforming several acres of wasteland at her husband’s fruit farm near Colchester into a garden in which she grew a range of plants from Mediterranean sun-lovers to waterside bog plants. Her interest in species plants, fostered by her husband’s lifelong study of plant ecology, led her to start her famous nursery of unusual plants.