Planting Design - Inspiration from Hauser and Wirth Somerset
Every year i take a modern day pilgrimage to a garden designed by renowned landscaping and planting designer Piet Oudolf. This year took me to Hauser and Wirth Somerset - a world class gallery and arts centre based at Durslade Farm in Bruton. The 'Oudolf Field' as it is known is a 1.5 acre garden to the rear of the gallery with traditional layout of curved sinuous borders but filled with swathes of perennials and grasses to give a loose meadow like informality to the space.
Following on from my visits to Scampston Hall, Pensthorpe Millenium Garden and Trentham Gardens in which Piet has worked his magic, this years garden of choice had a lot to live up to and i'm very pleased to say The Oudolf Field at Hauser and Wirth was every bit as beautiful and inspirational as i had hoped. Piet's use of large blocks of varieties interwoven amongst one another gives a very natural feel whilst still delivering on the colour, texture and form we love within our garden spaces. The 'New Wave Perennial Movement' in the 1990's saw garden designers seek out plants which offered high impact colour / texture / form for a long period whilst requiring little input in terms of maintenance. This planting style selects particular varieties of plants such as Sedums, Echinaceas, Echinps and grasses like Stipa and Molinia to combine in a loose manner to provide a rich tapestry of colour and interest throughout the year.
It's a planting style I love and use myself as a planting and garden designer to create long term interest and high impact for low input as most clients as for a low maintenance garden and these plants lend themselves to just that. I have approx. 25 square metres of 'Prairie borders' in my own garden which i have developed over the last 5 years to give colour, texture, form and interest through out the spring, summer and autumn months. I have created these prairie and perennials meadow style plantings in much smaller spaces to great effect and I'm exited to be designing and installing a Piet Oudolf inspired garden later this year in a country garden near Loughborough.
To see more of my own prairie borders follow me in Instagram where I frequently post photos of the planting.
