The Sunday Times - UK (2022-02-13

The Sunday Times February 13, 2022 17

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down to natural rather than

designed factors. The

outcome is a plant community

far denser than any border,

dense enough to keep out

weeds for years. For Stuart-

Smith, “prairie seems to be an

interesting way of creating a

diverse, colourful expanse of

planting which does not

require too much aftercare”.

Extracted from Wild: The

Naturalistic Garden by Noel

Kingsbury, with photography

by Claire Takacs, published by

Phaidon on February 17; £39.95

P

lanting — the way

plants are used

and arranged —

is changing.

Private gardens

and public spaces are

increasingly sporting

wildflower meadows,

prairie plantings or

perennials and

ornamental grasses

in great naturalistic

sweeps. There is a

general feeling that the

new style of planting

is a good thing — that

it is somehow more

sustainable, better for the

environment and wildlife,

perhaps lower maintenance.

It is an opportunity, too, to

be less fussy about getting rid

of every weed. Nevertheless,

the details of species used,

their organisation and layout

are mysterious. Here we

throw some light on the

transformation, from

the more obviously

designed gardens to the

wilder looking ones.

BLOCK PLANTING

OUDOLF FIELD,

SOMERSET

“A plant is only worth

growing if it looks good

when it’s dead,” says Piet

Oudolf, the Dutch garden

designer who has done

more than anyone else to raise

the profile of nature-inspired

planting. The comment was

made as a joke, but it

illustrates one of the reasons

Oudolf ’s work has become

so successful: he uses plants

that have presence and

character for months after

their main flowering

season is over.

The display in

autumn and early

winter at the Hauser &

Wirth Gallery in

Somerset is an

impressive array of

grass and perennial

seedheads and fading

foliage. The reduced colour

range means that the eye

focuses on subtle tonal

differences, but it is the forms

that are the main interest.

Walking along the broad

paths that separate wide areas

of planting, one can admire

a huge range of seedhead

shapes, from hard spikes and

spheres — such as the dark

umbels of ice plant

(Hylotelephium spectabile) —

to soft, almost cloudlike

sprays of tiny heads. Plants are

grouped into blocks in which

many individuals of the same

cultivar grow together,

clearly separated from the

neighbouring block. Seen

from afar, the impression is

of flowing drifts, repeated

several times over.

INTERMINGLING

WILDSIDE, DEVON

On the southwestern

slopes of Dartmoor,

Wildside’s mild, wet

climate and acidic,

well-drained soil allows

an enormous range of

plants to flourish. And

flourish they do, in a series

of microhabitats across four

acres of miniature hills and

valleys that Keith Wiley had

created out of a gently sloping

field. Sculpting the land with

a mini-digger was “my idea of

bliss... you can play God”,

Wiley says. He came here in

2004 with his late wife,

Ros, an artist, who played

a key role in developing

the garden.

Intimacy is all-

important in spring,

when bulbs and small

woodland species

dominate. Many of

these have naturalised

extensively, blending and

intermingling in a way

not often seen. Wiley uses

the language of an artist in

describing how he puts

plants together: first of all,

“careful placing of the shading

magnolias so as to frame any

pictures with their trunks”,

then a “semi-permanent

structure” of shade-tolerant

plants such as barrenwort

(Epimedium spp.) and

hellebores, among

which space is left for

bulbs to flourish and

self-seed.

Application of

composted leaves in

autumn, the leaving of

enough space between

larger plants, and

patience are essential for

this to happen, seedling bulbs

take up to six years to reach

flowering size. The result is

a blending of familiar bulbs,

such as species of daffodil

(Narcissus), crocus and

snowdrop (Galanthus), with

less familiar wild cyclamen

(Cyclamen hederifolium), dog’s

tooth violet (Erythronium),

anemones and famously

slow-growing, hard to

establish species such as

wake robin (Trillium).

GROWING

WILDER

Garden designer Noel Kingsbury on naturalistic

planting and how the experts do the trend

SEASONAL TOM STUART-

SMITH’S PRAIRIE,

HERTFORDSHIRE

In full summer flower the

prairie at the award-winning

designer Tom Stuart-Smith’s

garden at Serge Hill,

Hertfordshire, is an impressive

sight. To someone unused

to the American original, it

could almost be described as

surreal. It looks like a

wildflower meadow but on a

huge scale, with some plants

exceeding 6ft in height; there

is almost a feeling of having

blundered into an Alice in

Wonderland world. Prairie

dock (Silphium

terebinthinaceum) towers

above the architectural

thimbles of rattlesnake-master

(Eryngium yuccifolium). Broad

paths wend their way through

its 0.5 acres. “If you see it from

too far away, the forms and

colours mush into each other,”

Stuart-Smith says. “You need

to be close.”

Prairies are almost always

created from seed mixes,

meaning they are relatively

cheap to make and ensures

the plant distribution is largely

From top: block planting

at the Hauser & Wirth

gallery in Somerset;

intermingling at Wildside,

Devon; seasonal planting

at Tom Stuart-Smith’s

prairie at Serge Hill in

Hertfordshire

CLAIRE TAKACS