@ Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Stichting)
Through design and planting a garden acquires a distinctive mood and for this Mind Garden I imagine an informal space through which to wander, relax and feel secure. Van Gogh’s garden with lovers is just one of such images that artists have created throughout history illustrating the sort of strolling garden l have in mind.
This will be a garden without a focal point, it will surround you with a single sense of place, allowing you to wander, focused upon your inner thoughts or the person with whom you are sharing the space.
My eBook “Shrub Features” details the idea of surrounding specimen shrubs and trees with appropriate schemes of mixtures of perennials. These shrubs stand free from the garden’s boundaries or shrub borders and are thereby presented to their best advantage and allowed to grow naturally.
A series of borders featuring widely spaced shrubs and separated by winding paths is the model for this strolling garden. In the smallest of gardens we may be looking at no more than a couple of such shrub feature borders, but ideally this is an idea for a larger garden space with room for a more extensive network of paths with here and there benches to stop, relax and maybe steal a kiss.
There are two types of borders: some with small, evergreen Arbutus unedo trees and the others with Hydrangea paniculata shrubs. Each type will have a basic perennial meadow mix covering 75% of the ground area. Additionally, up to ten different complementary plants (small shrubs and perennials) will be planted as bold groups randomly throughout the whole garden space; each group being repeated at least twice.
Repetition is the key to creating the unified space filling this garden. Arbutus trees are multi-stemmed with flowers and fruit in late summer. The plants surrounding them will reinforce their evergreen character and give the garden its year round impact.
The hydrangeas are wide arching shrubs that flower for a long period in late summer. They will rise above a border dominated by arching green Hakenochloa macra grasses. In winter this grass will turn straw coloured, but remain effective through to the following spring.
The repeating clumps of complementary plants add additional interest to the scheme as well as weaving it into an all embracing familiar whole. Strolling through the space the same plants will be seen in ever changing relationships with one another.
Feature Border with tree – Arbutus unedo as a multi-stemmed tree and additional evergreen shrubs including Choisia ternata ‘Astec Pearl’, Viburnum utile and Ilex crenata or Buxus will be included here.
Theme plants – per square meter
2 × 3 Polystichum setiferum ‘Pulcherrimum Bevis’ – fern
1 × 1 Aquilegia vulgaris ‘Nora Barlow’
2 x 1 Epimedium rubrum
3 × 1 Phlox divaricata
2 × 1 Aster divaricatus
Feature Border with deciduous shrubs – Hydrangea paniculata and edging clumps of Sarcococca oriental give these borders their structure.
Theme plants – per square meter
3 x 1 Hakenochola macra ‘All Gold’
1 x 2 Persicaria amplexicaulis ‘Alba‘
2x 1 Euphorbia x martinii
1 x 1 Aster thompsonii
2 x 3 Amsonia hubrichtii
Complementary Plants for use throughout the whole garden in groups that will cover approximately 1 m2 each time.
Rodgersia podophylla 5 x, Hosta sieboldiana 3 x, Astilbe thunbergii 8 x, Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ 8 x, Anemone × hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ 5 x, Luzula nivea 10 x, Aruncus ‘Horatio’ 3 x, Dryopteris erythrosora (fern) 8 x, Chelone obliqua 8 x.
In many ways the actual plants proposed for this Mind Garden are less important than the ways the different groups are being used. The small evergreen tree Arbutus may be difficult for some to find at an adequate size. The trees could just as easily be small deciduous species such as Acer, Sorbus or Prunus and in a larger garden even Betula. Similarly the perennials need to form a harmonious understory with interesting variations in texture, scale and seasonal flowers. Nothing should dominate and which species are actually used will be dictated by the constraints that apply to all the perennial meadows discussed in this blog. What is important here is the repetition at ground level, mid level and tree level giving this design its strong character.
The theme plant schemes are similar to a number included in my eBook on Shady Perennial Meadows. There you will find detailed descriptions of the plants used together with suggestions for a range of different planting schemes.
Gardens can evolve over time to reflect the interests and character of their makers and eventually a unique atmosphere will develop. Alternatively, they can be designed either by their owners or a professional designer with the aim of creating a specific mood or visual impact. In this series of posts – Mind Gardens – I will try to show how different ideas and dreams can be realised in the gardens we design and plant.
Scheme 1 – taken from my Prairie Meadows eBook
Scheme 2 – taken from my Prairie Meadows eBook
Scheme 3 – conceived for this project.
For a garden to be more than just a comfortable place to sit in to drink a cup of coffee there needs to be some sort of idea underpinning its design. Ideas together with constraints guide the design process and can lead to outdoor spaces that have focus, draw attention to something or evoke an emotional reaction through associations.
Across a path, on the other side of the garden, I have designed a long and deep flower border. I could just repeat the same grass-based scheme here for a controlled minimalist look, but instead I envisage a low-growing, colourful flower border that will offer more interest over a longer season to the garden owners – Scheme Two. Note: These are often the sort of choices to consider when designing for either a public as opposed to a private garden setting.
Theme plants – per square meter ( x 1 )
Theme plants – per square meter ( x 1 )
Laren, the Netherlands, September 2018 design Piet Oudolf
Asters, grasses and autumn tints are the main ingredients that brought my garden to its final crescendo this year.
Beauty is to be found in the chaos of nature and this year, in the struggle for life amidst the perennials and shrubs in my gardens. A drier than average spring followed by a totally dry summer in which a hundred days passed without any significant rainfall in a country famous for its canals; I was forced to turn on the sprinklers.
Shrubs held onto their leaves for as long as they could, but eventually many just dropped them and I am sure will recover next year. Some perennials like ligularias, Darmera and certain ferns simply disappeared and again I am sure they will all reappear this autumn or next spring.
What was interesting was how some plants simply dried up and remained effective after a short flowering period. In late autumn we would be talking about their winter silhouettes, but in July you needed to adjust your expectations to fully appreciate what was happening. In the case of this public planting in the commercial district of Amsterdam I found the result still effective and attractive.
More gardeners are starting to install irrigation systems, but if the trend in climate change is going to continue we would be better changing the pallet of plants we grow. I visited a high profile public park planting here this August which was of course fitted with an expensive watering system, but the lush green that dominated this oasis seemed strangely at odds with the wider landscape which was buff-brown; more typical of the Mediterranean region than temperate Holland.
We were allowed to water our gardens this summer as the one thing the Dutch are good at is water management, but in truth it felt wrong. Nevertheless it meant that I was able to keep the garden ticking over with some parts relished the extra heat, sunshine and, for them adequate, water.
Rain has finally fallen and within a week our parched, buff-brown land is green again. Asters, grasses and Rudbeckias are all thriving in the garden and surprisingly many shrubs are bearing heavy crops of berries.
It is in late spring, just after the tulips have ended, that I become delighted by the many flowering shrubs and distinctive foliage colours that seem to dominate the garden.
Of course there are various perennials flowering including Euphorbia, Geum, Geranium and bulbous plants such as Camassia and ornamental onions, but foliage colours and the flowering mounds of Viburnum and Deutzia shrubs attract all the attention.
My philosophy over shrubs concludes that shrubs are best used in gardens to create highlights and structure amidst a wider field of flowering perennials and ornamental grasses.
Even in my own garden where I trial many different plants, including lots of shrubs, the idea is evident, but ideally the relationship between shrubs and perennials should be far more pronounced. Many Deutzias grow too large for smaller gardens but I have found Deutzia rosea ‘Campanulata’ with D. x elegantisima ‘Rosealind’ (behind) remain sufficiently compact for my needs. The upright shrub on the right is Frangula alnus ‘High Line’. Its distinctive upright form suggest it would work in a variety of schemes, but I find it rather boring and not very elegant, for such an upright design feature I can think of many slim growing conifers that would look so much better, and would be evergreen.
Purple leaved foliage has featured in my gardens far a long time as it offers a strong, season-long contrast with the green foliage and flowers that generally dominate. Prickly Berberis, evergreen Pittosporum and Cercis with its flush of pink flowers on bare stems at the very start of the season have all proven indispensable.
In my vision of the 
My last post showed the garden three weeks ago just after I had knocked down all the perennials with the question “would you want your garden looking like that?”.
Well, as promised, the perennials have reappeared rapidly to cover the ground level debris and the shrubs are bursting into flower.
This is how it was just three weeks ago.
The dead remains of last year’s perennial growth will rot down in the course of the year, gradually nourishing the plants in a natural process.
Shrubs and tulips take a leading role at this time of the year.
