Crackling with good ideas

Tilly Ware visits Highlands, a relatively new garden surrounding an old house in East Sussex that is thriving in the care of innovative head gardener Chris Brown, who is introducing a rare and wonderful collection of plants Photographs by Mimi Connolly

- Tilly Ware

IF you were to cook up the dream head gardener, it would be Chris Brown. Trained at Kew, he has a global eye for a plant, sharpened by botanising trips to Bhutan and South Africa. His creativity won him the first Employee of the Year Award during his four-year stint at the matchless Gravetye Manor in West Sussex. He combines sustainable, ecological planting practices with spectacular plantsman-ship. In 2019, Mr Brown became head gardener at Highlands, East Sussex, working closely with the owner to bring ‘maximum biodiversity, wildlife and beauty’. Listening to the two of them discuss their latest car-boot-filled foray to Nick Macer’s nursery Pan Global Plants, you feel the crackle of shared energy that powers this garden. You also feel a little envious.

Highlands is a relatively new garden wrapped around an old house, spanning nine acres within a 100-acre estate. The 15th-century Wealden hall was extended in the 1600s and 1800s, to which the current owners added a modern extension pushing out to the east, with glass doors leading out to a geometric set of circular and rectangular pools in stainless steel. Vibrant lime-green domes of Euphorbia polychroma hide the foliage of thousands of bulbs crammed in between, together with geums and primulas. Facing the pools are the terraces, built with recycled stone six years ago and now overflowing with a riot of hot colours, self-sown biennials and grasses. It is a happy spot for dry-loving, easy-going plants, such as Phlomis russeliana, Nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ and numerous kniphofias that take over once the Digitalis purpurea fade. Beyond this, the land dives down to a natural swimming pond and a bog garden, with a bucolic view across wildflower meadows and coppiced woodland towards Ashdown Forest on the horizon.