UP THE GARDEN PATH
A beautiful mix of Scabious, White Valerian, Eryngium-Sea Holly, Verbena Bonariensis and Perovskia Blue Spire.
Louise Tomlin considers taking a more natural approach to planting
In recent years I’ve become aware of the increasing popularity of naturalistic planting. This is a style of planting that is inspired by natural environments that attempts to echo how plants occur in the natural world, that is aesthetically pleasing and allows them to compliment each other in the way nature intended. This can apparently bring a host of benefits for the gardener and for wildlife, as it encourages biodiversity, it is also good for the soil and if done in the right way can reduce maintenance.
I decided to dig a little deeper as I’ve recently become aware that some of the parks and public spaces in my area have started to adopt this approach. I read an explanation of what had driven one group that works on a local public garden to consider this innovative move as an alternative to the traditional annual bedding schemes, that has persuaded me this may be the way forward. They pointed out that traditional bedding schemes are somewhat out of step with climate concerns. These are the type of plantings you see in many municipal parks throughout the land, with large quantities of annuals planted and then removed and replaced with others throughout the year. These short-lived swathes of colour need seasonal replacement, they take a lot of labour, watering and in a many cases pesticides to keep them looking good.
This group of gardeners proposed a naturalistic planting scheme having been inspired by the work of Nigel Dunnett, Professor of Plant Design at Sheffield University, who creates planting designs for public and private spaces that are ecologically respectful (I recommend his book if you want to know more). Inspired by his work they have embarked on a plan to plant layers of drought-tolerant perennials, that will be equally attractive to garden visitors and pollinators. The longevity of these plants means they will multiply and cover the beds sufficiently to reduce maintenance, which will mean less weeding and will also mean less watering.
Starting last spring, they planted euphorbias and grasses as the main ‘anchor’ plants in their beds. Around these they put in salvia, achillea, crocosmia, and kniphofia, along with these supporting plants: knautia, sedum, leucantheum, echinops and gaura. 600 species of tulips and irises were also planted followed by alliums in November. They also planned to insert some paler plants like gaura, to provide highlights once it became clear where they might be needed, and more sedum and knipfofia to top up areas when necessary.
It’s an interesting, ongoing experiment and I will be keen to see how it develops through the coming year. They have mentioned that inexperience and lack of budget has led them to plant less densely than may have been ideal in the first year, which has meant they had to do more hoeing to tackle some weedy areas. However, they should eventually be able to divide some of the larger plants to spread them out to help develop the planting into attractive features for visitors. Well done to them for being honest and brave enough to try something new, Rome wasn’t built in a day and this sort of planting scheme isn’t going to be instantly beautiful, but hopefully over the years to come will reward their efforts.
This is an approach that can be scaled down for smaller private gardens, so if you’re interested here are few key points:
Try to ensure the plants will happily grow where you put them, aiming for the correct amount of light or shade and soil type, then they will require little or no intervention.
Use nature as your inspiration and observe how plants grow together in the natural world. Create a selection of plants that will look good together and plant multiples of them, however don’t put single plants randomly around, or put huge chunks together either as that definitely won’t look natural.
Consider how the plant will transform throughout the year and blend species that flower at different times like naturalized bulbs that will flower early, then flowering perennials intermingled with beautiful soft grasses.
Avoid cultivars and brightly coloured, over-bred, blousy flowering plants, instead choose native, perennial plants that, given the right aspect and soil will self- seed. This spontaneous spreading will increase the impression of natural planting.
I’m only scraping the surface of a pretty hefty subject, so as I usually say, there’s plenty more information about this on the internet, if I’ve given you some food for thought about trying a more naturalistic approach to your planting, why not go for it?
