Planting the Natural Garden

by Oudolf, Piet

• ISBN13: 9780881926064
• ISBN10: 088192606X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-11-15
• Publisher: Timber Pr

Summary

Following on the success of Designing with Plants and Dream Plants for the Natural Garden, Piet Oudolf's landmark first book (co-authored by Henk Gerritsen), is now available in English. Thoroughly updated and revised, including several new chapters and many new photographs, it provides the definitive argument for the "natural garden." This updated edition of the book that started the "Dutch Wave," a movement that is now sweeping gardens from Europe to North America, shows how to plant a garden that can look wild but be tame at heart. Hundreds of eye-catching plant combinations are explained in detail and provide ideas for every garden. The authors emphasize how gardeners can create moods and emotional responses with the deft use of themed plants. Foolproof lists and instructions for placing specific plants in particular garden habitats are included, as well as complete growing requirements. As ethereal, even lyrical, as these gardens and plants can seem to the eye, it is important to recognize that Oudolf and Gerritsen have chosen their plants for hardiness and suitability for garden habitats. These are tough plants that do not need to be pampered or coddled. The popularity of the "Dutch Wave," from England's Chelsea Garden Show to the healing garden at New York's World Trade Center has as much to do with the reliability and sturdiness of the plants as it does to their beauty and grace.

Author Biography

Piet Oudolf is renowned worldwide for his imaginative garden designs. Most of the plants he uses to furnish those gardens come from the nursery he runs with his wife, Anja, near Arnhem, in the Netherlands. Among the gardens he has designed are the Dromparken in Enkoping, Sweden; two great borders at the Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley; and private gardens in various countries. The garden he designed with Arne Maynard for the Chelsea 2000 Flower Show won the Best Garden Award. In that same year he won the prestigious Millennium Garden Design Competition, earning him a commission from the City of Chicago to design a new park together with landscape artist Kathryn Gustafson. In 2002 he was asked to design the Gardens of Remembrance at The Battery, New York Distinguished garden designer Henk Gerritsen runs the Priona gardens, which he created in 1978 in Schuinesloot, in the Netherlands. In a range of individually designed gardens, thousands of wild and cultivated plants grow side by side in natural-looking environments. All of this has been made possible by Gerritsen's comprehensive knowledge of the plants' reliability and relative growing strengths

Table of Contents

Introduction	6	(10)
Plant descriptions
Perennials	10	(66)
Ornamental Grasses	76	(8)
Uses	84	(55)
Blazing	88	(4)
Lush	92	(4)
Airy	96	(4)
Tranquillity	100	(4)
Exuberant	104	(4)
Silvery	108	(4)
Grassy	112	(4)
Gloomy?	116	(4)
Autumn	120	(4)
Wonderful	124	(4)
Good Neighbors	128	(2)
Planting Plans	130	(2)
Exceptional Properties of Plants	132	(4)
Plants per Square Meter	136	(2)
Literature List	138	(1)
Photographic Acknowledgments	139	(1)
Nurseries and Gardens	139	(1)
Index	140