Lately I've been studying a few of Piet Oudolf's garden books. His garden design philosophy has been described as "naturalistic", as he uses mostly perennials that look close to their wild ancestors and that have long seasons of interest. His gardens are gorgeous - let me repeat, GORGEOUS! - and best of all, many of the plants he regularly uses in his designs do well in Calgary - a bonus!
I'm planning to write a little more about his design principles here in the next few months, and maybe even an article for the Calgary Horticultural Society's newsletter (I'm getting ambitious, aren't I?) But in the meantime, have a look at some of these photos posted on other websites. I could spend all day staring at some of these, couldn't you?
Piet Oudolf's photostream on Flickr
Adam Woodruff's photostream on FlickrPiet Oudolf interview on Gardening Gone Wild (with lots more links in this article)
Love it! Wow, I really like how he frames his naturalistic plantings, esp grasses, with the gorgeous hedging. A perfect balance!
Posted by: The Ms. S. | November 09, 2009 at 05:43 PM
Yes, I love juxtaposition of the trimmed hedges with the naturalistic plantings. Youll notice he doesnt use shrubs in their natural, amorphous shapes at all. Other than the shrubs, his style is very sustainable and low maintenance.
Janice
Posted by: Janice Miller-Young | November 10, 2009 at 06:03 AM