Beth Chatto Gardens with Host Carol Klein

These are some of the greatest gardens in Britain. From a ducal castle to a garden once lost in time. From a modern masterpiece to a plantsman's paradise. We've searched out the finest in the land. Each has its own unique story to tell. Oh, it's delightful. Join me, Carol Klein, on a journey through the four seasons. As I experience a year in their lives. Meet the people who look after them. This is the season which seems to be attached to my soul. This is my midlife crisis bit, really. Glimpse what goes on behind the scenes. Come on, share your secrets. Reflect on their magnificent designs and celebrate the plants that make each so special. As I look through these massive pinnacles of flower, I can see the pinnacles themselves. Serendipity! From up and down the land, these are great British gardens waiting to be discovered. I'm really looking forward to it. Bet you are too. This is one of the most influential British gardens of the last half century. Its creator, Beth Chateau, was a true pioneer and one of the most important plants people of her time. A 15-acre Essex garden and nursery is located in one of the driest spots in Britain and is celebrated as the embodiment of right plant, right place. The idea that plants thrive best in situations that are similar to their original environment. It's a garden I've visited many times before. I'm so thrilled to be back here at Beth Chateau's garden and to see her philosophy of working with nature rather than struggling against it in operation, in the garden. And what's more, to be able to come back during each season to see how it works right through the year. This is a story that began 60 years ago when Beth and her husband Andrew took on an overgrown wasteland of brambles and boggy ditches and transformed it into this beautiful and subtly complex garden. Beth sadly passed away in 2018 but her garden lives on, a place of pilgrimage for both experienced and novice gardeners alike. Beth Chateau was one of my gardening heroines. It was she who, more than anybody else, instilled this whole idea of right plant, right place in gardeners' minds. And she did this through all sorts of means. Through her books, she was a wonderful writer. Through public speaking, through talking to people but more than anything else, through her garden. This is a pure example of her philosophy and it's wonderful to be here. I've arrived as the tints of autumn are starting to show. And what better place to begin with than Beth's drought-resistant gravel garden. Once a lifeless car park with compacted earth, today it's an icon and must be one of the most written about and photographed gardens in the world. It has so much interest to offer at this beautiful time of year. I'm tiptoeing in as daintily as I can because this whole ground here, all the gravel is strewn with self-sown seedlings of various thistles under this plant. It's verbascum bombociferum. It's a great big mullein. And in its first year, it makes these huge rosettes of leaves. But normally, in the next year, it'll send off this huge spike of bright yellow flowers. They'll set seed. They'll scatter the seed here, there, and everywhere. And then the plant, sadly, will die. But it'll come up somewhere else next year. And then this lovely shrub in the background, it's atriplex halimus. It's a shrub that thrives at the seaside. And if you actually taste its leaves, they taste of salt. And it's an ideal plant if you've got a windy site, very, very poor, well-drained soil, and you want something that's going to sparkle and be silver all year round. Beautiful combination. All these plants have something very important in common. Beth chose them because they all grow naturally in similar conditions in the wild. If they'd evolved to survive in very dry soil and exposed sunny aspects, here in the gravel garden, they shouldn't need watering or any other artificial life support. This is truly sustainable gardening. Thanks to this important idea and for her work as a pioneering horticulturalist, Beth won many awards over the years and greatly influenced a loyal team of gardeners. Two of them had a special relationship with her, becoming both horticultural acolytes and close friends. Also Gregors Varg, now head gardener. And Beth's right-hand man for more than 35 years, David Ward, now director of the gardens. He helped create this masterpiece of drought-resistant gardening. I believe the whole idea is that it's like a riverbed, a dry riverbed. That's right. Beth, on one of her lecture tours with Christopher Lloyd, a good friend of Christopher, went over to New Zealand and they had a picnic. It was on a dried-up riverbed. There were boulders and the occasional plant coming up, and Beth just remembered this sort of river of gravel, this dried-up riverbed. I mean, it was absolutely revolutionary, wasn't it, when you did it? It's common sense, basically, to Beth. You can never really understand it because we were, you know, growing plants suited to the conditions. We had this hot, dry, stony, sandy, gravelly piece of land. We could never improve the soil enough to grow hostas or something. So obviously we have to choose plants adapted to these dry conditions. Did you improve it? Everybody assumes that you just took the grass away and then just started planting it. Beth had a saying, one of her many sayings, is you can't give plants the worst you have, you always try to give them the best you can. Soil preparation is as important as plant choice. So we put a lot of effort into that, and we ploughed the soil, and we added as much organic matter as we could lay our hands on, basically. So lots of mushroom compost, lots of our own homemade compost as well. The myth is that you don't water this garden. Is that right? Yes, that's correct. We've never artificially watered this garden. It's a drought-resistant garden. That's why the plant choice is just so critical. Yeah. Lots of small leaves, lots of silver grey plants. You know, there's no big foliage plants out here. And lots of grasses that like this. Lots of grasses, lots of bulbs, of course, because they're ideal. They're dormant in the summer. Ideal drought-resistant plant. We try not to overdo the grasses. Beth often used them as sort of full-stop plants at the end of a sentence or the end of a border. It's nice to have a single grass so you can see the shape of a grass. For example, the grass there. If it was in a block, you'd lose that effect. And this is their thyme, but I don't think I've ever seen this one before. This is a North African grass, Ampelodesmus mauritanicus. These plants are from all over the world. But I'll tell you what, David, absolutely everything here looks so happy to be growing. Doesn't it? It's proof that you can have a drought-resistant garden. That does look good as well. It's well and truly the most wonderful gravel garden. It's brilliant. To a plant lover like me, this place is intoxicating. But I've only scratched the surface. There's so much more to see. I'm so excited to see this garden because I've never seen it before. You know, you're not allowed to do this normally. I would seriously tell you off. I'm enjoying the autumnal beauty of the Beth Chateau Gardens in drought-prone Essex. It's a garden that thrives on the ethos of right plant, right place that Beth Chateau championed. Visitors encounter her world-renowned gravel garden as soon as they arrive. But it's a place of contrasts. Arranged around Beth and Andrew's house, it's home to a huge variety of plants that thrive in the diverse natural conditions that are found here. There's the cool, damp water garden and the more exposed reservoir garden with its incredible tall grasses. And a shady woodland walk. It's a plant addict's paradise where you can stumble upon both horticultural rarities and more well-known plants, including a familiar friend planted in its less familiar natural habitat in the woodland garden. We're used to seeing this plant growing on the front of buildings. Suddenly in autumn, the whole place is transformed when the leaves turn brilliant red. It's Parthenocissus virginia creeper. But here it's being used in the same way it would grow in nature, climbing up trees or carpeting the woodland floor. And it really does just bring the whole woodland floor to life in autumn. Near the woodland walk is the reservoir garden. It's recently been redesigned. Now a mosaic of island beds, it's crammed with tall grasses and perennials, providing interesting combinations of foliage and form. I'm so excited to see this garden because I've never seen it before. How old is it? It's been here about two years now. Orsa has worked here for nearly two decades. And for her, following Beth's principles goes without saying. She's chosen plants that can sustain themselves and flourish in the clay conditions found here. We're actually walking right into one of these beds. Right into the middle of the bed. You know, you're not allowed to do this normally. I would seriously tell you off. So you get a true idea of the kind of way in which you planted and the whole idea. Beth wanted to paint pictures. She wanted to make pictures. Something that would sort of last throughout the year as well. So she would look for good foliage, something that would obviously produce flowers, but flowers were never really the key attraction. Because it's so transient, aren't they? It is, it is. And it's all about the contrasting textures and shapes and forms. So you'll have the leaves of the cardoon against this miscanthus. And then you have the seed heads of the flomis. And then a bit of fluffiness from the gower in between. A little bit of white flowers flattering. It's a flippancy here and there. Because she had a very light touch with things. I've never seen any of her plantings that look sort of heavy and solid. There's always a poetry to them, isn't there? And she was very inspired by Ikebana. And the way of putting plants together and simplicity. By the time you were actually constructing the garden and planting it, Beth was in the house most of the time, wasn't she? She was, yes. I used to bring her photographs or pieces of plants and just talk her through what was happening. And you got on tremendously well with her, didn't you? I just fell in love with Beth's books, her writing, The Gravel Garden. And so I wrote a letter to Beth and said, could I please come just for the summer? And she very kindly offered me a seasonal position. And then I just never left. You know, I think it was just that sort of connection to just create gardens the same way. You can just feel her presence here. You really can. It's a delightful garden. It's really wonderful. When Beth began her garden in the 1960s, she went on a journey of discovery. And one that never ended. I'm already looking forward to seeing what I'm going to discover when I come back in winter. It's January here at Beth Chateau's Gardens and everything's stripped back to its bare bones. But far from being a desolate scene, it actually enables us to see the way the place has been laid out by Beth and her team. It's a brilliant opportunity to really appreciate its design. And there's no better example of that than the acclaimed Gravel Garden. It's a masterclass in structure and of winter interest. Thanks in part to its architectural plants, left standing since the autumn. Isn't it wonderfully refreshing to be in this gravel garden and to see so much going on? It's astonishing really in the midst of winter until you remember that so many of the plants that are here are from the Mediterranean and they never lose their leaves. And you might expect things like this Malianthus, which is actually a South African plant, to have completely died down, lost all its leaves by now. But because it's been so mild, it's stayed evergreen. It's also to do with the kind of conditions underneath here. This, if it was in a really soggy place, would probably just have gone. But when you come out here, if you jumped up and down in the rest of the garden, your feet would sink into the mud. But here there's no movement whatsoever because it's just gravel and there's excellent drainage. None of these are sitting in moist, wet soil at all. So all these plants that might die in a soggier situation are absolutely thriving. There are so many plants that are looking truly magnificent because this charming little plant is Libertia peregrinans with these bright orange blades. It's actually from New Zealand, but of course it grows in exactly the same sort of conditions as all these Mediterranean subjects. It likes an open place and really brilliantly drained soil and it emphasises the choice of plants here and echoes Beth's message, right plant, right place. Then in the foreground, there are bright sparks of colour from these different anemone pavaninas from the mountain slopes all around the Mediterranean. But here they're equally at home. But here's a plant that might be more familiar to the British gardener. This is one of a whole range of different beguineas that are used very successfully here in the gravel garden. Beth was a great advocate of beguineas. Lots of people thought they were very dull sort of plants, but Beth absolutely disputed that fact. So she gave them lots and lots of good publicity in her books, her writings, and of course, here in her garden. They're from Central Asia and the Himalayas. Their great advantage is that they can stand a whole range of conditions. None of these even blink however cold it gets. They really are the most splendid plant and such a good example of how Beth educated us. A former teacher, Beth was passionate about passing on her knowledge and her vision of sustainable gardening to future generations. She even set up an educational trust for trainee gardeners and it's still going strong. Today, team leader Mark McKern is showing trainees Mosaic and Francis how to divide hostas. Four points on the compass, yeah? They're hard at it in the boggy stock beds where plants that love damp conditions are grown. Can I give you a hand? Absolutely. Have you always done this? No, I've retrained. I used to be a teacher. Oh, did you? So that's really a change. Me too. Which hosta is it, Mark? This is Snowdon and this particular one is a bit of a flagship. So we're talking 1.2 metres high and when it clumps a metre wide. You can see it from a distance, can't you? Waving. But right now you're dividing. Right now we're dividing. You could have started this any time from October onwards and you can carry on going all the way to February. So you've got quite a window of opportunity. I'm going to take a proportion of the plant away, replace a proportion of the plant but that gives me stock from a parent plant that will be identical. And that stock will be used for what? Well, in some cases it's actually used to bolster the garden and in a lot of cases it's actually used to propagate for sale here. The first step is to dig up the parent plants very carefully to make sure you don't damage the all-important new shoots or, indeed, the roots. But then the idea is to shake all this compost off? That's it, yeah. Never be afraid to hold on to the bottom of the root and shake it because you're going to do less damage down here. You mustn't damage those otherwise you'll have nothing to grow, will you? Absolutely. And you won't have a plant. Now we've done the dirty work, it's time to hose off the soil to reveal the juicy new shoots. Look at that. It is the exciting bit. You really start to see what's going on in the plant. Doing this limits the transfer of any weeds, seeds and pests. Once you've washed it, this is where we have to get a bit brave. Pull all the roots together, put your hand so it's upside down, turn it like that and cut. Avoiding your hand. Across the bottom. Now it's ready for dividing. The number of shoots will determine how many pieces you can divide the root into. So coming from the middle here. Okay. Each one will make a new plant. Look at that, that's perfect. So three hostas for the price of one. Then you have the Beth Mae way of potting. So you take a scoop, which is roughly half the amount the pot can hold. You put your hand in and pull back at a 45 degree angle. So you now have a slope. We can then take a hosta and you can place the cut on the slope and tuck the roots in. Which then enables you to take a handful of the compost. Because you've got your thumb on the top of the plant, you can now straighten it to the middle. Right. Now, the one thing that she never wanted to see was people pushing with their fingers all the way around. She used to say that was playing the piano. Do you know when I divide plants, I always burn the composter. They still grow. She'd have you replanting them. A handful of bark to keep the moisture in. And that's it, a Beth Chateau masterclass in propagation. How many plants have you got to divide this spring? Well, just this month, we've got 292 varieties to do by division. Right. Yeah, better get cracky. With her wealth of knowledge being passed on to this day, Beth's presence remains powerful in this garden. And I know that when spring arrives, we'll see more of the fruits of her gardening principles bursting into life everywhere. I'm spending a year at Beth Chateau's world-renowned gardens in Essex. The dormant season is over. Spring has well and truly arrived. Everywhere, expectant buds erupt, trumpeting the arrival of warmer and longer days. Lush, moisture-loving vegetation fills the damp margins of the water gardens. Even in the driest areas, like the gravel garden, everything looks fresh. Euphorbias are at the height of their spring performance right now. Their beacons of electrifying lime green punctuate the borders, drawing you down the gravel paths. Verdant ground cover provides the perfect background for the small but brilliant flowers of Geranium malviflorum, the first of the cranesbills to flower. And Beth's beloved beguinias stand proud with their deep pink flowers. Spring jewels like these species tulips, the daintier ancestors of the bigger, bolder, cultivated tulips, stud the gravel. This perennial wallflower, Erismum mutabile, takes its name from the changing colour of its flowers. It's in its element in the exposed, sharply drained conditions of the gravel garden. During spring, there's interest at every turn, but it's a woodland garden furthest away from the house. That really comes into its own now. It's a personal favourite of garden director David. So this is very much a naturalistic garden. It's very much a spring garden, as all woods are really. So the idea is everything sort of takes advantage of the light and the moisture in the spring. But as the summer goes on, the leaves start to come on the trees, it gets darker, the foliage takes over and lots of things tend to tie back for the summer until we have a sort of explosion of colour in the autumn. Beth and David began to develop this area in the late 1980s. Always working with the existing conditions, they gradually transformed a corner of natural woodland into this lovely, informal garden. Beth decided which trees to leave, where the paths would be, where the beds would be, the borders. We were left with quite a few oak trees, ash, the odd elder and some birch. And then Beth had to establish an understory, plants to sort of connect the ground with the lower branches of the trees. So lots of sort of shrubs went in, climbers put on some of the trees, this lovely climbing hydrangea up this oak tree. And then she set about covering the ground. And then, you know, we have things like the Solomon's Seal that will come up through all the foliage. Throughout her gardening life, Beth always thought out the rare and unusual. And this is no ordinary Solomon's Seal. It's a desirable purple-leaf variety to which Beth was introduced on a visit to Germany. Its enticing chocolatey-coloured foliage will eventually turn green later on. But right now, it's at its most alluring. Beth wrote a book called The Green Tapestry, and I think this part of the garden, the way the plants are sort of interweave and, you know, it's a sort of tapestry effect on the ground, all the different foliages and textures. And I guess that was what Beth was trying to achieve, as well as find a home for all her special woodland plants that, you know, we do struggle a bit to grow in dry East Anglia. Beth didn't just add splashes of colour at ground level. A short walk away in the reservoir garden, a spectacular Judas tree takes centre stage, impelling you to lift up your gaze. What a breathtaking sight. Its scintillating purply-pink pea flowers grow directly out of the branches, and even from the trunk before the leaves arrive. From the Mediterranean region, this is a tree that thrives in well-drained soil and a sunny site. It never makes a big tree and could be accommodated in most gardens. When the season changes, the Judas tree flowers fade from the spotlight and other beauties take their place. That's the joy of a well-planned garden. I can't tell you how thrilling it is to be back here at Beth Chateau's gardens. You just can't believe that in the middle of the very hottest time of year, in the very driest part of the country, it just looks so splendid. If you want a richly rewarding garden all year round, then the best path to follow is right plant, right place. She responded. She responded to the environment, to the habitat, to the way things were. Is it damp? Is it dry? What are the plants that are going to grow there? And everywhere you look, you can immediately see that kind of philosophy in action and how wonderfully it pays off. If you want your plants to flourish, you must choose those that'll love the conditions. Revisiting the reservoir garden, I'm interested to see how the recently planted islands of herbaceous perennials and grasses are getting on. Also, it's looking splendid. It's come on really well this year. We had a really wet winter and then obviously a very, very dry spring. So we're starting to be a little bit concerned. This is unimproved clay soil and it tend to crack. It was getting to the point where it desperately needed some rain and we were very fortunate to get a little bit. Yeah, I wondered about that because clay soils are great, very fertile and they retain lots of moisture, but they can be problematic if it gets really dry. We use green council waste. Right. So we mulch every year. And that obviously helps improve the soil structure. Yeah, and it must help retain a bit of moisture as well. It does. But nothing in here looks sort of dwarfed by a drought at all. It all looks to be, you know, being itself. It's incredible to think that with only minimal support, everything looks so healthy. It's something you notice all over the garden, with contented plants left free to behave as they do in the wild. I know one of the things you do in here is let quite a lot of things self-seed. But what's the regime there? Because some things can take over. I mean, what about these opium poppies? If you let all this lot go, you're going to have nothing but opium poppies. Yes, there will be thousands of seeds in just one of those little seed heads. So it's really time to start collecting them as they turn brown. They're not one particular colour. They do vary quite a lot. Yeah, that's a beautiful wine colour, isn't it? It's gorgeous. That's what always amazes me, because even if you start off with just one, the seedlings... Exactly. In the whole range of colours. And there's a little pretty little pink poppy called Bess. Bess poppy, yes. This time of the year, we start collecting the seeds. So we allow them to self-seed, and then we collect seed for the nursery as well. I'm always delighted to make off with a pocketful of seed. And I've got the chance to help Orsa collect some. They're ready to harvest once the heads have dried out and the small holes at the top have opened. By cutting the whole head off and dropping them into a paper bag, we'll save as many of the tiny seeds as possible. Very satisfying sound, isn't it? When you hear them all spilling out into the bag. Opening that and you can see... Oh, yeah. You're going to have a whole patch of them on the path. I know. I shouldn't have done that, should I? No. Thank you. And as we keep cutting them, there will be a few seeds that fall down on the ground, and that's going to be plenty for next year. So we don't actually have to sprinkle any on the ground. We just allow them to self-seed. It's very apparent just how Bess's work is being progressed and taken forward. It is. I mean, it's a great responsibility. And it's just a huge privilege to look after the garden. I think it's coming along wonderfully. It's lovely. Oh, thank you, Carol. That means a great deal to hear you say that. From the newest part of the garden to one of the oldest, the tranquil water gardens. A few degrees cooler than everywhere else, it's filled with luscious moisture-loving plants. The garden's got this lovely sort of relaxed air about it, and I've never seen it looking so lush. Well, this part of the garden, obviously, the soil's naturally moist. They're natural ponds, so the water level's quite high down here. And just to have that contrast between the dry garden and then to come down into the water garden, which is all full of flower and foliage. But, I mean, this garden depends hugely on foliage anyway. Very much. It's one of Bess's things. It does. I mean, we could take out the flowers out of this view and still have a really interesting garden to look at. Yeah, you could. I like this flower, though. Oh, yeah? It's Butomus. Butomus umbellatus, or flowering rush. A flowering rush. So it's a British native, isn't it? It is, I believe, yeah. Yeah. A bit of a thug. We have to sort of keep them sort of under control a bit. But some thugs are nice, aren't they? That's right. But brilliant insect plants. Yeah, there's lots of, I don't know why, lots of aquatics, I suppose, because there's lots of insects around the water. Do attract all hoverflies, all kinds of things. I love this little Houttuynia. It's really beautiful, those sort of heart-shaped leaves. A lovely little plant. It is Houttuynia cordata. That's the single form. It smells of orange peel, doesn't it? It smells, most of them smell of Seville oranges. Yeah. Most people don't get that one. It's quite weedy, actually. We find ourselves having to control it pretty well yearly. And little pieces often float off into the middle of the pond. Right. We have to weed the ponds as well as the borders here. That's lovely, David. This relaxed style may look natural and easy to maintain, but far from it. The pond needs regular skimming to clear it of the long strands of string algae. Too much of that clogs up the pond and harms the fish. But on a hot summer's day like this, I can think of worse jobs. But it's in the garden that Beth often referred to as her gravel beach, the parched, drought-resistant garden, that we'll most clearly see how the year has come full circle. You can actually hear the bees on this beautiful plant. There are so many of them that the whole plant is moving backwards and forwards. It's the height of summer at the Beth Chateau Gardens in Essex. A pioneer of English horticulture, her approach advocated working with nature and never against it. The most famous display here is Beth's drought-resistant gravel garden. We've basked in its glory throughout the year, watching it change from season to season. Never dull, always inspiring, especially in summer, at this sometimes bone-dry time of year. Walking through this gravel garden, it's just like being on a Mediterranean holiday. Everywhere there's this aroma, this wonderful scent, and it's all these plants that are full of essential oils and just bringing in the insects. This beautiful tree has perfume within its flowers. It's Janista apenensis, and it's commonly known as the Mount Etna broom, because that's where you find it, on those volcanic slopes. It's found in Sardinia, it's found in Sicily, all through that part of the Mediterranean, but always in very dry, poor conditions. And it can grow into a huge, great big tree, but it's got this delicate, fine, elegant sort of growth, and its leaves are almost non-existent. They're tiny, because it has to resist that hot, beating sun. It's the perfect plant for this situation. Of course it is, because Beth chose it, and she knew that, amongst all this low-growing, wonderful stuff, she needed a bit of structure, something a bit taller, and it just arches over everything. A lot of people wouldn't have room for this in their gardens, but if your garden is small, but the soil is really dry, thin, gravelly or sandy, then there are a whole load of different brooms that you can choose, and all have beautiful perfume. In summer, the gravel garden is a feast for all the senses. Flashes of colour ravish the eye, and the grasses flex and rustle in the wind. Gravel crunches underfoot. There's movement and interest everywhere. If you just pause for a second, you can actually hear the bees on this beautiful plant in the foreground. It's actually a tucrium. It's called Tucrium lucidris, and there are lots of little plants around here with great big long names, but it's so worth studying them. This is a Veronica. It's called Veronica perfoliata, commonly known as Digger's Speedwell because it comes from Australia, and it's called perfoliatum because the leaf stem actually pierces the leaf. Very unusual sort of formation, but the texture of the leaves is just lovely. They're very fleshy, and that's another way, again, that plants can resist really baking hot sun. This is one of my favourite plants. It's Belotta pseudodictamnus. I have to touch it. It's one of the furriest things you could keep on as a pet, quite frankly. Again, a way of resisting sunshine, just guarding the cuticle of the leaf. Although I'm hugely interested in the variety of plants that there are here, perhaps the thing that strikes you most is the way in which these plants have been combined. They've all been chosen to cope with the conditions, but they also look beautiful together. Their aesthetic arrangement is a really big part of the equation, and anybody could grow any of these plants if they've got the right conditions. Dry, hot, sunny, well-drained. And that goes for every part of the gardens. Whatever the season, whether your garden is damp, shady, or sunny, no gardener could find a better place for inspiration. I feel so lucky, so privileged to be here in the middle of this beautiful, beautiful place. I visited it several times over the years, and I was lucky enough to know Beth and to share in some of her horticultural wisdom at first hand. It's here, it's in this place where you see the gathering together of all her many talents, her appreciation of natural laws, her encyclopedic knowledge of plants, the ability to put these plants together so that they look as though they were meant to be there. It's tranquil, it's delightful, and to be here is just to be overcome really by the soul of the place. And that's why Beth Chatto's garden is truly a great British garden. And Carol is back next Thursday at seven. Brand new tomorrow at seven, allowing cameras in for the very first time as they prepare to unveil a new multi-million pound exhibit. We reveal the secrets of the Imperial War Museum. After the break, 500-year-old graffiti reveals how Queen Mary got her bloody nickname. Inside the Tower of London is new next.