Beth Chatto

Beth Chatto (27 June 1923 – 13 May 2018) was an English plantswoman, garden designer and author known for creating and describing the gardens named after her near Elmstead Market, Essex. She wrote several books about gardening under specific conditions and lectured on this in Britain, North America, Australia, the Netherlands and Germany. Her principle of placing the right plant in the right place drew on her husband Andrew Chatto's lifelong research into garden-plant origins.

Biography She was born Bessie Diana Little at Good Easter, Essex, to Bessie (née Styles) and William Little. She had a twin brother, Seley, to whom she remained close in adulthood. (Beth Chatto's Garden Notebook, October, p. 278.) Her parents were themselves keen gardeners. She was educated at Colchester County High School for Girls before training as a teacher at Hockerill College, Bishop's Stortford. She adopted the name Beth in her twenties.

In the early 1940s, she met Andrew Chatto, a fruit farmer, namesake grandson of the founder of the publishing firm Chatto & Windus. Their shared love of plants helped to bring them together and they married in 1943. The couple lived in Braiswick, Colchester, where their two daughters, Diana and Mary, were born in 1946 and 1948. In 1960, they moved into the new White Barn House, built on the farm at Elmstead Market. At this time, they became friends with Sir Cedric Morris, who ran an art school at Dedham, Essex, attended by Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Chatto learned much of planting techniques from Morris, but his advice that she should move house if she wanted to create a truly great garden was less welcomed. From the late 1950s, Chatto was involved in the Flower Club movement.

From 1960, the Chattos worked on developing their gardens and in 1967 the nursery was opened. In 1978, Beth Chatto's first book, The Dry Garden, was published by J. M. Dent. She contributed to articles for the international and national press and appeared in international media. Her husband had pre-deceased her by almost 20 years, dying in 1999. was published in 2019 by Pimpernel Press.

The Beth Chatto Gardens Construction of the Beth Chatto Gardens at Elmstead Market, near Colchester, began in 1960. It was attached to the Chatto family home, on land that had previously been part of their fruit farm. It had not been farmed before, as the soil was considered too dry in places, too wet in others and the whole area had been allowed to grow wild with blackthorn, willow and brambles. The only plants to survive from the earliest days are the ancient boundary oaks surrounding the garden. was founded to engage all age groups with plants and gardens, and to take an ecological approach to them. The trust also sponsors the Beth Chatto Environmental Award, under the auspices of the Garden Media Guild.

The Society of Garden Designers has created a Beth Chatto Eco Garden Award to be assigned from 2020 onwards. It will focus on the ecological impact of garden designs.