When garden designer Jane Gates moved out of London to the Sussex countryside in 2015, she fell in love with a traditional black barn conversion, and set about creating her perfect garden around it, inspired by celebrated plantswoman Beth Chatto’s gravel garden in Colchester, Essex. What she didn’t know was just how quickly her dry, drought-resistant garden would become relevant to today’s changing climate.
This area near the south coast has always been one of the hottest and driest parts of the UK. Over the years, Gates has experimented with plants that suit the site. But some of them have also coped well with increasingly challenging conditions – particularly the greater extremes of hotter, drier summers and mild, soggy winters.
