Fergus Garrett

Fergus Garrett VMH is an English plantsman, horticultural educationalist and Chief Executive of the Great Dixter Charitable Trust. He is described as one of the most influential living garden designers and horticultural educators in Britain today.

Life and work Fergus Garrett was born in Brighton. His mother was born in Istanbul and his father was English. His mother left the marriage when Garrett was six months old and returned to Istanbul with the children, where he spent his formative childhood years. She wished for her two boys to study in England, so they returned to live with their grandmother in England. When his mother retired, she came back to England and the two boys moved to live with her. At school in Hove, Garrett's geography teacher encouraged him to pursue land-based studies, so he applied to study agriculture at Wye College in Kent. He intensely disliked the principles of modern agriculture and so swapped to study horticulture under lecturer Tom Wright, who had been a student of Christopher Lloyd in the 1950s. Garrett worked for Brighton Parks Department, gaining practical experience, and then completed a BSc back at Wye College.

At the age of 27 Garrett joined the Great Dixter team and worked closely with owner Christopher Lloyd (1921-2006) from 1992 until his death. Garrett became like a son and heir to the old man. The Dixter gardens had lost a sense of clear direction and Garrett helped bring drive and energy to the planning and planting design. After Lloyd's death he went on to become Chief Executive of the Great Dixter Charitable Trust, Lloyd not wishing the house and gardens to "stagnate" under English Heritage or National Trust ownership. The New York Times noted "Garrett has proven himself a visionary in his own right, with a style more effusive than Lloyd's, but with the same exacting attention to each combination, seeking new sensations of color and texture and -- this is key -- a graceful progression through the seasons."

Garrett doesn't favour the use of synthetic chemical interventions in land or plant management. He supports building biodiversity and ecological education.

Personal life and honours

Garrett and his wife Amanda, a zoologist, have two daughters and live in Hastings Old Town. He is described as a "world famous plantman" and "the Lionel Messi of horticulture", one of Britain's most influential garden designers.

Garrett has received the Royal Horticultural Society Associate of Honour (2008), the Veitch Memorial Medal for outstanding contribution to the practice of horticulture (2015) and the Victoria Medal of Honour (2019). He is a patron of the Beth Chatto Education Charity, and the President of the Northiam Horticultural Charity; he is on the garden advisory boards for RHS Wisley, the Landcraft Gardening Foundation and Prospect Cottage and has held the role of judge at the Chelsea Flower Show. He is also a reviewer for the BBC's Gardeners' World Magazine.

He also loves cooking and Turkish culture, and practices green woodcraft.

Works Great Dixter: Then & Now (2021)