Beth Chatto’s Scree Garden: A Visit to the Garden Next to Her Home

Beth Chatto created her famous gardens on the site of a former fruit farm, theming each area around its unique climactic conditions—a wet garden, a woodland garden, and, perhaps most famously, an innovative gravel garden in which a south-facing carpark was converted into an arid garden with sinuous beds and highly textural plantings that provide ever-changing vistas in one of the driest areas of England.

Close to the late plantswoman’s former home, which sits in the middle of her eponymous nursery and gardens, a scree garden is similarly inspirational. Shallow beds are filled with alpine plants in free-draining soil and close to the house, Chatto’s collection of succulents takes center stage.

A collection of pots are displayed in front of the mid-century farmhouse that was built for Beth and her husband Andrew Chatto, alongside one of his orchards. Built in 1960 from natural materials, the design of the house played entirely to the couples interests, with a minimalist open-plan kitchen and living space and a light-filled study where Andrew, a lifelong plant ecologist, could research and write. Outside, the building’s understated mid-century features create the perfect foil for plants. Let’s take a closer look.

Photography by Clare Coulson.