Home and dry

摘要

When Beth Chatto dug up a carpark and turned it into a dry gravel garden she caused quite a stir. By creating something special from a tricky site, this ground-breaking designer and plantswoman went on to prove that dry can be beautiful and that there's no point in fighting nature -you have to work with it.Beth's approach had a huge influence and helped change the way we now garden extremely well-drained soil without the need for constant and unsustainable watering. And while we don't all have dry gardens, many of us have hot, dry areas under the eaves ofroofs or next to moisture-sapping brick walls, which can be difficult areas to garden in. Plants including agastache, artemisia, eryngiums, euphorbias, fennel, ornamental grasses, thyme, and Mediterranean shrubs such as lavender and rosemary are the wayto go. Many of these plants will oblige by quickly self-seeding in gravel and can be weeded out where not wanted, or lifted and planted elsewhere to create a flowing natural style.