Professor James Hitchmough’s garden, Wadeford, Chard.
We will meet at Clayhanger House, near Wadeford, Somerset. This is a new, just over one hectare garden currently being created-curated by the renowned horticulturalist, author, Emeritus Professor of Horticultural Ecology at the Unversity of Sheffield, and 2024’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Council of the Society of Garden Designers, Professor James Hitchmough.
The garden consists of two very different but integrated parts; i) an orchard-like recently planted “wood pasture” of “climate change” trees, with native wildflower meadow beneath and also within large glades: ii) a garden below the house mostly on a south facing slope, eclectic, but with a very strong South African planting character.
Both wood pasture and garden are based on random repeating patterns within a strong spatial frame. All planting and sowing has been chosen to come through the climate of 2070 without irrigation when this part of Somerset is predicted to resemble the current climate of Central Britany. The proximity of the Atlantic substantially reduces the climate shift much more than that of London, just 100 miles to the east. Local habitat conditions within the garden are also a major factor in plant choice and positioning, as is the need to choreograph dramatic floral moments in time and space.
The morning will commence within an overview of the design process adopted and the big ideas behind the project. We will then look at the design and establishment of the wood-pasture and discuss the creation of native wildflower meadows and the process of increasing native plant diversity in what was a cow field.
After lunch the focus will be on the garden around and below the slope, which includes 250 square metres of dry planting into deep gravel, which bleeds into contemporary herbaceous planting set with a tussock grass matrix. There are also shady edges, which support an entirely different flora. All planting is choreographed to try to have drama from February to November, but June is a good time because the many cultivars of Cornus kousa are in flower as is the wildflower meadow, and the earlier elements in the garden.
As a university researcher and practitioner, James has pioneered the creation of multi-layer herbaceous planting, to maximise the duration of flowering from each square metre of garden, and this will be a major focus in the afternoon session. One of the characteristics of the garden planting is that species used are often represented by many individuals, often 100+ but as repeating individuals rather than blocks or groups.
This event has been organised by the Garden Museum’s Garden Visits Committee. We recommend you read our Garden Visits Charter and Refund/exchange policy before booking your place on any of our Garden Visits.
