'To see a meadow in bloom is a great delight – it's alive and teeming with life, mysterious, dynamic ...' So Christopher Lloyd began his much-admired instructive and celebratory account of meadows, first published in 2004. Few people knew more about meadow gardening than Lloyd, who spent much of his long life developing the flowering tapestries in his garden at Great Dixter, creating scenes of great beauty and a place of pilgrimage for lovers of wildflowers and wildlife. In Meadows he imparted that lifetime's learning, exploring the development and management of meadow areas, explaining how to establish a meadow in a garden setting, describing the hundreds of beautiful grasses, bulbs and perennials and annuals that thrive in different meadow conditions and detailing how to grow them. Lloyd's classic text remains at the heart of this new book, which also includes – as well as much stunning new photography – an extensive introduction by Fergus Garrett, Lloyd's head gardener.
Christopher Lloyd (1921-2006) was a charismatic and controversial gardener and writer who devoted his life to the garden at Great Dixter in East Sussex. He was the author of many best-selling gardening books and wrote for newspapers and magazines. He was created OBE in 2000 and also held the highest award of the Royal Horticultural Society, the Victoria Medal of Honour. Fergus Garrett was chosen by Christopher Lloyd as his head gardener at Dixter in 1992. He worked closely with Christo until Lloyd's death in 2006. Garrett is now Chief Executive of the Great Dixter Charitable Trust and also combines his full-time, hands-on gardening role at Dixter with writing and lecturing. In 2015 he was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the RHS. Jonathan Buckley specializes in garden and plant photography. He has illustrated many books and is widely published in newspapers and magazines. Carol Casselden is an award-winning photographer of gardens and plants. She lives in East Sussex.