Is the new natural, the minimalist way forward with garden design everybody is hankering for?
From an article by Tim Sykes written in the So Magazine, June 2022
This month Tim Sykes of Gardenproud discusses how onental grasses combined with perennials can create a low maintenance yet effective way to plant up your garden…
Whether you have an enormous plot, or a small town garden, everybody is becoming conscious of the need to create more sustainable environments that we can enjoy and support our fragile ecosystem.
Time is becoming precious and clients are looking for simpler gardens to maintain. As a designer I fear that there is a trend towards outdoor spaces with almost zero planting. Please don’t let that happen! The concept of simple, can easily be accommodated, but there is no such thing as “zero maintenance”! Everything we build and create needs looking after.
The solution can be beautiful and sustainable. This is not a new idea. It has been explored and developed by clever plantsmen and women for decades.
One very famous exponent of the solution is Piet Oudolf. He has perfected and promoted the new perennial movement.
Piet and his wife Anja, who researched plants and techniques for many years, developed a way of combining grasses and perennials to create defined areas in gardens that establish form, colour and design throughout the year requiring little maintenance.
One of Piet's books, published in 2021 in collaboration with Noel Kingsbury " Oudolf Hummelo" documents his obsession with plants and how he nurtured these and his technique to turn his own house and garden in Hummelo, Netherlands into a showpiece for this new perennial movement.
Some key plants from Piet Oudolf's Field at Hauser & Wirth :
Rudbeckia subtomentosa, Echinops bannaticus, Sanguisorba "Red Buttons", Stipa tenuissima " Mexican Feather Grass", Veronicastrum virginicum "Album", Echinacea pallida, Helenium " Moerheim Beauty", Hylotelephium "Matrona", Imperata cylindrica "Rubra" and Anemone x hybrida "Robustissima".
Piet's other work can be seen around the world, including the New York "High Line", a section of disused railway track that has been transformed into a raised walkway and garden by Piet and his team.
The secret is in the mix of the planting and also the shape of the beds. The effective combination of these allow the eye to be entertained and seduced and taken on a journey through the garden, throughout the seasons. Pathways and lawned areas break up the shapes and allow the client, or visitor to walk through the landscape.
The beds themselves remain intact throughout most of the year, some plants dying back to fresh forms and points of interest, the whole structure is then simply maintained once, or twice a year.
We are starting to introduce this concept with our clients. In some cases this is using meadow grass to create shape and soften large expanses of pasture, or grass. In others simple mixed planting borders that create a combination of colour and activity across a number of seasons, with almost minimal maintenance.
We've also been experimenting with ready made products, including those sold by clever nurseries, such as Pictorial Meadows. Pictorial sell a whole range of Meadow Grasses containing perennials and annuals that help you establish gorgeous borders almost instantly!
We recently designed and built a Kitchen Garden, and used Pictorial's Woodland Fringe mix as an outer blending border to the scheme. It is just stupendous ! It comes on a wide roll, it flowers first in spring, and keeps on bursting into new flower throughout the summer.
The principle of the new perennial movement in garden design has been interpreted by gardeners throughout the world, including our very own Dan Pearson and Andy Sturgeon who have famously created many gardens incorporating these ideas.
Andy's latest garden at Chelsea this year, is tipped for an award. A combination of naturalistic planting and architectural features that are in stark contrast, but somehow co-exist to create a stunning garden for Mind, the mental health charity.
Things to do in the Garden this June:
- Open up the windows in your greenhouse, or cold frame to help air circulate and avoid plants from overheating
- Harden any remaining bedding plants in readiness for planting out
- Weed your beds
- Dead head roses and other repeat flowering plants to encourage fresh growth
- Continue to add earth around your potato plants as they grow
- Harvest any lettuce and other salad plants and replant plugs for fresh produce
- Continue with a regular mowing regime and keep your lawn edges trimmed
- If you haven't cut back your box yet, pick a cooler couple of days and trim and shape your topiary before the temperature rises
- Don't forget to water your plants regularly, early morning, or late afternoon