How far will a keen perennial gardener go in the search for new ideas?

Lately, it’s far beyond my own garden gate, and recently involved plane, train and taxi rides all the way to the tiny village of Hummelo in the eastern Netherlands.

I arrived there early one morning last July to be welcomed by none other than Piet Oudolf, the silver-maned Dutch lion of modern landscape design, standing outside his rust-coloured brick farmhouse.

Thrilled to be there and yet not knowing quite what to expect, I was one of a diverse group of 25 landscape designers and avid gardeners from as far away as New Zealand, Argentina, Sweden, the U.S. and Europe there to participate in a one-day intensive planting design workshop led by Piet and his writerly counterpart, Noel Kingsbury.

The prospect of hearing Piet and Noel talk about the “New Perennial” movement, which looks to nature for a different way to create and experience our gardens, in the very place it first took root was simply too powerful to resist.

With the others still to arrive, Piet beckoned me to visit his fabled front perennial garden. And as I stepped through the archway in the tall beech hedge, the almost mythical space unfolded around me—the plants serene and glowing in the diffuse morning light.

Bedazzled, my mind went a little supernova. And the day had hardly begun.

Piet strolled down to check on me, coffee mug in hand, and we launched into a conversation that started with plant talk and ran from there over the course of the day. First up: he explained why he was forced to remove the iconic wave hedges (diseased by winter flooding), but how this now opened up whole new sightlines within the garden. It was an impromptu lesson from the master in how to be practical and visionary at the same time.

I returned from my garden epiphany to join the group proper, now seated in the wide-beamed former stable set to begin our exposition into naturalistic planting design. The day was an inspired mix of slideshow lecture and humorous asides, tasty sandwiches prepared by his charming wife, Anja, and walks around the garden to see how Piet puts his ideas into practice.

I was fascinated by all of it, and kept wondering what design revelations I could bring home to my woodland cottage garden in Ontario.

Piet encouraged us to, “Share ideas and plants, freely”. His words have inspired me since this recent workshop to open up my garden to neighbours and help them create plantings of their own. I’m also following Piet’s advice to “Experience what happens, act when necessary” when maintaining my own evolving plantings. I feel liberated to sidestep the rules and explore the frontiers.

Noel brings an ecological perspective to planting design— the idea of getting down on hands and knees to examine perennials from “the rabbit’s-eye view”. Look at where the stem joins the roots for clues as to how a given species will behave in garden conditions—for example, whether it’s a slow clump-former or aggressive spreader. Piet sees planting design as a four-dimensional art form—drawing from his decades as a plantsman to anticipate how plants will perform through their life cycles each year.

They both see intermingling plants as the future of perennial design: blending different species together in tightly knit, sophisticated plantings to thrive and compete as they do in natural habitats. It’s a major departure from the traditional drift-and-block-style planting, but one that opens up immense creative possibilities, as seen in signature Oudolf projects such as the High Line, the 1.45-mile-long elevated park built on a former railroad line on the lower west side of New York City. In other projects, he favours a hybrid approach—combining intermingled areas with solid group planting to create yet more visual and textural variations.

After learning more about his methods, I’m now fixated on designing a new planting for the sunniest border of my garden. As Noel advises, it will need to be that much more finely tuned to reward closer viewing.

Before picking up a spade, I’ll pick up a pencil and tracing paper to sketch out the planting design as a series of three layers in overview. As Piet explains, the first layer consists of structural plants, followed by a matrix of grasses, and then a layer of accent and filler plants. Lay all the sheets together and I’ll have the makings of a highly intermingled perennial planting design.

I’ll aim to group plants by common habitat with a 70:30 ratio of structure to filler plants. And I’ll stay away from biennials until the primary planting is established. (Their proclivity for self-seeding will help create a feeling of spontaneity.) When planting, I’ll space closely, from 10 to 12 inches (25 to 30 cm), to get the desired meadow effect but allow room for bigger perennials to mature. No fan of weeding, I’ll mulch with either a layer of natural pine bark, or local leaf litter – ideally chopped up from the garden itself.

My wild dream is to create a free-flowing planting where prairie-style perennials rise out of a shimmering tapestry of grasses. The moment of truth comes later when the planting dies down to reveal its essential design structure. It’s a different vision of beauty, one that arrives with faded flowers, tawny foliage, and skeletal seedheads—or as Piet dryly put it, “You wait…for the moment they die.”

As published in GardenMaking No 17, Spring 2014 under the title: ‘Designs on a new garden’

Exploring Hummelo: Slideshow Epilogue

In the course of one fantastically full day, I wandered around nearly every corner of Kwekerij Oudolf in Hummelo. The magisterial front meadow is sublime but I was also intrigued by lesser-known parts of the garden, which share this feeling of spontaneity. This slideshow scrolls through some highlights along with a visit to Piet’s design studio out back – keep in mind, it’s early July and the garden still has months of growing to do.

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