Naturalistic Planting

自然主義プランティング / 1990s– / Style / Garden Styles

Planting design modeled on perennial meadow ecologies, led by Piet Oudolf: beauty extended to the dead seed heads of winter, a year-round idea rewriting urban public space from the High Line outward.

Naturalistic Planting — Planting on the High Line (CC BY-SA 4.0) · © Beyond My Ken
Planting on the High Line (CC BY-SA 4.0) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Beyond My Ken
Naturalistic Planting — Piet Oudolf garden, Voorlinden — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Renate Hano
Piet Oudolf garden, Voorlinden — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · © Renate Hano
Naturalistic Planting — Planting by Piet Oudolf at RHS Wisley — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Colin Smith
Planting by Piet Oudolf at RHS Wisley — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0 · CC BY-SA 2.0 · © Colin Smith

At a glance

Visual cues

  • Perennial and grass communities
  • The beauty of dieback
  • Drifts of planting
  • Ecology as the model

Best used for

  • Planting public space such as a riverbank or an old viaduct cheaply
  • Designing a garden open all year that must hold up in winter

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Dictionary entry

Type
Perennials and grasses, few species repeated in large masses
Composition
Drifts that meander and interlock along blended edges
Material
A single cut in spring, seed heads and stems left standing
Caution
Copying the look by adding species lets the strongest grasses smother the rest by the second year, and the drift turns into weeds.
Further study
Piet Oudolf / the High Line / the New Perennial movement

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