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Six beautiful drought-tolerant gardens you can visit to inspire your planting
Drought-tolerant gardens are all the rage at the moment, as garden designers start to envisage a future in which UK summers get hotter and drier, and the kind of lush, water-intensive flowers we love in English country gardens become harder to sustain. At this year's Chelsea Flower Show, many of the show gardens, including the School Food Matters garden by our Rising Star Harry Holding, placed a heavy emphasis on drought-tolerant planting. More and more influential gardens in the UK now feature spaces that don't rely on regular watering in some capacity or other. If you're looking to incorporate more of this type of planting in your own garden, we've got plenty of advice for how to plant Mediterranean gardens, gravel gardens and on drought-tolerant plants generally. But there's no substitute for seeing how it works in person, so we've also gathered seven gardens you can go and visit for inspiration.
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Eva Nemeth/National Trust1/6The Delos Garden at Sissinghurst Castle Garden
Originally planned as a Mediterranean garden by Vita and Harold Sackville-West after a trip to the Greek island of Delos, this part of their famous garden at Sissinghurst in Kent never quite worked out as they had intended. In 2020, Dan Pearson was called in to redesign the garden according to the original intention, and with the help of dry garden plant specialist, Olivier Filippi of Pépinière Filippi, the raised beds filled with a freely draining soil mix are now overflowing with Mediterranean plants like rosemary, lavender, cistus, and cypress trees.
The garden at Sissinghurst is open daily from 11am until 5.30pm. nationaltrust.org.uk
2/6Beth Chatto's Gravel Garden
Renowned garden designer Beth Chatto transformed areas of her family's Essex fruit farm deemed unfit for farming into a beautiful and varied garden from the 1960s on. There is a shade garden, water garden and scree garden, but probably the most influential area is the pioneering gravel garden (once a car park), which has never been irrigated despite being located in one of the driest parts of the country. If you're looking for inspiration for specific plants to include in your own schemes, this has one of the widest range you can see in the country.
Opening times vary throughout the year. Visit bethchatto.co.uk to find out more.
ANDREW MONTGOMERY3/6The Walled Garden at Knepp Castle
The famous rewilding project on the Knepp Estate in Sussex has now found its way into the old walled garden near to the castle itself. Formerly a kitchen garden, croquet pitch and pool, the space now includes a variety of different zones, and the soil was manipulated by adding crushed concrete and brick from building sites on the estate. The most impoverished zone features drought-tolerant plants laid out in repeating yet random patterns and over-sown with a further 40 species that may self-seed and colonise.
Visit the garden by attending a ‘Rewild Your Garden Safari’ at Knepp; these run approximately every two weeks. knepp.co.uk
Howard Sooley4/6Prospect Cottage
On the shingled coast of Kent sits this legendary cottage and garden created by the artist Derek Jarman. The landscape is almost desert-like, with plants appearing to emerge directly from the shingle, though in fact compost was layered underneath the pebbles. Jarman took advice from Beth Chatto and inspiration from her gravel garden when choosing plants that would work in the beach's drought conditions.
Entry to Prospect Cottage is by pre-booked ticket only. Book now at creativefolkestone.org.uk
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Howard Rice5/6The Dry Garden at the Cambridge University Botanic Garden
The gardens on this list congregate in the south-east of the country for good reason, as it tends to be drier than other parts. With Cambridge's climate defined as ‘semi-arid’, it's a perfect place to view a dry garden. The plants have all been selected for their tolerance of low-water conditions, and the garden is a model for the aspiring low-maintenance gardener.
The Cambridge University Botanic Garden is open daily. Find out more at botanic.cam.ac.uk
Trevor Chriss / Alamy Stock Photo6/6RHS Garden Hyde Hall
Still in the east of the country, the RHS garden at Hyde Hall features a spectacular dry garden which includes plants from dry regions across the globe, from the Mediterranean to California. Grasses and seedheads make it a beautiful place to visit in winter, while poppies, verbascums, echiums and salvias add drifts of colour in summer.
RHS Hyde Hall is open every day. Visit rhs.org.uk for more information.
