Beth Chatto's Green Tapestry Revisited - by Beth Chatto & Julia Boulton (Hardcover)

About the Book

The beautiful, and sustainable, perennial planting of Beth Chatto's garden, chosen to suit its varied conditions.

Book Synopsis

First published in 1989, Beth Chatto's Green Tapestry described in words and photographs how Beth Chatto created her now world-famous gardens, and the thinking that lay behind them.

Beth Chatto's Green Tapestry Revisited brings the story up to date. Given the current issues about climate change, Beth's ethos of choosing those plants that are best suited to the prevailing conditions could not be more appropriate.

Her original text has been revised and updated by David Ward, Gardens and Nursery Director at Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens, and Asa Gregers-Warg, the head gardener, both of whom worked with Beth during her lifetime and continue to work at the gardens to this day. This new edition highlights the changes - all in line with sustainable planting - that have been made in the 30 years since The Green Tapestry was first published, including the subsequent addition of the Woodland Garden, the major transformation of the Entrance Garden into the much-acclaimed drought-resistant Gravel Garden, the creation of the Scree Garden and, most recently, the substantially redesigned Reservoir Garden.

A feature of the original book - the planting plans for sample beds in key areas of the gardens - have also been updated in this edition as have the entries in the practical Plant Directory to some of Beth's favourite perennials. The foreword is by Julia Boulton, Managing Director of Beth Chatto's Plants and Gardens.

Review Quotes

"After years of tracing garden plants back to their parents in the wild, Chatto knows the preferred growing conditions for individual species of perennials. . . . Amid what seems a crowd of plants, each chapter spotlights one or two of Chatto's favorites, such as hellebores, waterside grasses, ferns, euphorbias and fritillarias. This feature, along with a plant guide at the end of the book (where useful lists of companion plants join individual plant profiles), accompanies the lush, abundant photographs. . . . Will suit American gardens in zones 4-7." --Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Beth Chatto (1923-2018) was born in Essex and lived there throughout her long life. Thirty years before The Green Tapestry was written, she set about transforming several acres of wasteland at her husband's fruit farm near Colchester into a garden in which she grew a range of plants from Mediterranean sun-lovers to waterside bog plants. Her interest in species plants, fostered by her husband's lifelong study of plant ecology, led her to start her famous nursery of unusual plants.

Julia Boulton is Beth Chatto's grand-daughter. She took over Beth Chatto's Gardens as managing director in 2012.

Steven Wooster is a graphic designer and an award-winning garden photographer, whose work has illustrated many successful gardening books including Beth Chatto's Shade Garden, Woodland Garden, The Gravel Garden and The Green Tapestry.