Great Dixter Gardens
For those that take their gardening seriously, Great Dixter is one of the most fascinating and inspirational places to visit in England. Set in the Sussex landscape, 57 acres of gardens, woodlands and meadows surround a pair of once-separate timber-framed medieval and Tudor houses now cleverly blended together.
Great Dixter house today is the result of the Arts & Crafts stylings of eminent Edwardian architects Sir Edwin Lutyens and Nathaniel Lloyd. In much of his work Lutyens liked to employ a variety of styles, and never is this more obvious than at Great Dixter. The original house was built around 1450 but has been knitted together with a 16th century house from a completely different village! Furniture designer Lloyd and his wife Daisy were responsible for much of the interior decorations.
The house was the birthplace of Lloyd’s son, Christopher, whose calling in life as a gardener was obviously inspired by his surroundings. He added exotic and wilder plantings to the existing English room-type garden here. He then went onto become the chief garden writer for the influential Country Life magazine, and this is the reason Great Dixter has become such a pilgrimage for green-fingered devotees today.