This very special day has been devised for Garden Museum guests who are looking to attract more wildlife into their garden. John Little is a maverick garden designer, brimming with groundbreaking ideas, who will explain how anyone can incorporate his concepts in a beautiful, design-led way into any garden setting. He will be showing us how to create a low-maintenance garden filled with flowers that not only brings pleasure to people but also embraces and encourages bees, butterflies and a host of other wildlife.

This is an opportunity to spend a day at Hilldrop – the wonderful four-acre garden John and Fiona Little have created at their home in Laindon, Essex – which was recently cited by renowned plantsman and author Nigel Dunnett as “a new iconic garden that people would still be talking about in 20 years”. With his business The Grass Roof Company, John is well-known for his incredibly inspiring low-impact landscapes, demonstrating how even the most unpromising soils – stony, arid and low in fertility – can be turned to advantage.

Using Hilldrop as a proving ground, John has developed ideas from his work as a green roof and brownfield gardening expert by working with low-fertility substrates. Hilldrop runs down a south-facing slope and has been sown with a wonderful mix of native and non-native perennials and annuals direct into many different recycled materials, from brick and concrete rubble to crushed glass. As a result, chalk downland species such as small scabious proliferate, amongst wild carrot, pinks and viper’s bugloss.

After coffee on the decked terrace, John will welcome us and give an illustrated talk in the garden room and then we will explore this fascinating garden together, taking in its many features, including green roofs, ponds and skilfully-designed habitat panels and planters. We will be joined by entomologist James McGill who regularly surveys this garden and can give us insight into what thrives here.

After a delicious lunch, prepared by Fiona, we will have further time to explore the garden, see Fiona’s productive raised beds and discuss John’s ideas in more detail in a Q&A session. We will also visit the community gardens at the nearby Essex Wildlife Trust nature discovery park, where John has been designing biodiversity into the car park. Our inspiring and thought-provoking day will conclude with tea and cakes.

This event has been organised by the Garden Museum’s Garden Visits committee. We recommend you read our Garden Visits Attendee Charter and Refund/exchange policy before booking your place on any of our Garden Visits.