Piet Oudolf's garden

back garden - Piet and Anya Oudolf's private garden

I've talked a bit about my visit last fall to naturalistic gardens in the Netherlands and Germany recently, and have been reminded, again, about how amazing they were.  Piet and Anya Oudolf's garden in Hummelo, in the Netherlands, was remarkable when I visited during their open garden days in late September, 2013.

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First thoughts about Piet and Anja Oudolf's garden

I knew I'd like this garden, but I was overwhelmed. It was extraordinary. I couldn't believe how creative the juxtaposition of textures, shapes, and colors were, and the way senescing plants were part of it- amazing.

The Joe-Pye and Vernonia were in full flower and all of the grasses were in their glory, either golden or on their way.

I visited on a perfect morning, cool and fresh, with a bright clear light, and I'm glad that I hadn't made it late yesterday, so I was able to experience the garden with fresh eyes.

Anja was there to greet visitors, and when I said I was American, replied that Piet was currently at the High Line (it's on my list to visit).

The gardens encompass an old farm site with a modern house, with the former nursery area converted to a spectacular created/artistic meadow planting. The older garden in the front of their property had amazing complexity with texture and colors, confined by the formality of beech hedge and clipped yews, and the structure of the garden paths.

Needless to say, looking at my photos on an iPad just confirm what a wonderful garden that this is, but don't give me much scope to really look at the images I managed to capture. Sorting will need to wait until I'm at home again.

I'm so glad that I was able to experience a visit in person. The way that Oudolf designs with plants (a great many of them eastern and central North American natives, but not exclusively at all) definitely honors their qualities as plants going through their life cycle. I'm going to read his book on that subject again, written with Noel Kingsbury, when I get back home.

2-yr old planting on old nursery site

Grasses and Forbes with house in background

Joe-pye and other in front garden

Textural contrasts

There will be more thoughts as I reflect on this garden. What a great gift for them to open their private garden to visitors on weekends from August through fall, and in early summer.

Posted with Blogsy

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Botanical gardens and natural plant communities

A primary incentive to visit gardens in Germany and the Netherlands was to see the gardens inspired by nature, created in public spaces.

But an unexpected pleasure (on my first garden visiting day) has been the wonderful collections of native plants in naturalistic plant community plantings in two University botanical gardens. The first I visited was in Osnabruck, where I was a post doc almost thirty years ago.

The Professor in my lab group had come from Munster (~ 45 minutes away), where a venerable botanical garden is also part of the university. Part of his job was to establish a botanical garden in the old quarry adjoining the relatively new University in Osnabruck. I didn't ever see the site, so it was a revelation to visit today and enjoy the 25+ years of plantings. I guess I should have expected the careful curation and attention to detail, but the wonderful "recreation" of habitats was amazing.

It's late now, and having experiences is the point of traveling (not sitting in your hotel room writing and trying to upload photos), so there will be more later. (I'm traveling light with an iPad, a camera connector, and a wireless keyboard!) So the photo interface is clunky (uh, I took 140 photos today, including quite a few of signs and cool created pollinator habitats and bat refuges).

I've been mulling over how remarkable these natural habitat-based plant collections are. Similar collections were in Munster, the second garden I visited. A much older garden, the moor habitat was my favorite, although their alpine collections, and meadow plantings were amazing, too. It was so interesting how the garden editing (think weeding and maintenance) differed even in their herb garden plantings. The plant community gardens were a joy to visit -- I just wish I had time to find and visit some of the real-life examples (probably not that common now).

My lab director was a plant ecologist, so it's not surprising in retrospect that these gardens have such a strong plant ecological bent, and German botanical studies have had a focus on plants in their communities for a long time.

Tomorrow, I'm off to Piet and Anya Oudolf's private garden. I'm really looking forward to seeing what's in their personal landscape, especially post-closing their nursery.

Also, I haven't yet gone into one, but some of the "garden centers" here in Northern Germany are the size of a Home Depot. They're usually in the neighborhood of IKEA stores and car dealerships (eg. outskirts of town). I don't know what's in them yet, but I'm planning to check one out. Pots? Decorations? Fields of plants for your garden? Potting mix? Stayed tuned.

Osnabruck botanical garden:

alpine garden in Osnabruck

Moor garden (Munster botanical garden)

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Looking forward to garden visiting

In just about a month, I'll be visiting gardens in Germany and the Netherlands for a couple of weeks on a self-guided garden study tour.

I've been wanting to do this for several years, after I started learning more about the 'new wave' gardening trends practiced by Dutch, German, and English garden designers, creating naturalistic gardens, and often using many of our North American natives.

It should be quite interesting.  I'll be visiting Piet and Anna Oudolf's private garden during their open days, as well as Mien Rhys' garden, now open to the public.  There are a number of other destinations on the itinerary, too, Hermannshof and Weihenstephan. The latter requires dealing with Oktoberfest visitors, so I may not make it there.  We'll see. But there are lots of other gardens, natural areas, and cultural sites to visit, too, so I'm totally looking forward to the traveling.

I spent a year in Germany as a post-doc almost three decades ago, so it will be interesting to return.  My gardening companion and I went to an International Botanical Congress in Berlin back in 1987, and spent 3 weeks traveling in Germany, Austria, and Northern Italy, but we haven't visited Germany since, choosing more far flung places to travel to (the exception have been trips to Northern Italy in 2001 and Southern Italy in 2008).

I'm currently immersing myself in reading and listening to German (it's amazing how much that I still comprehend), and enjoying reading gardening blogs in German, too!  It's great fun to be able to listen to podcasts, read magazines online, etc.

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Olympic garden plantings

I've been immersing myself in learning more about 'New Wave' naturalistic planting design in Europe (and the inspirations for them), and was impressed by the new plantings for the Olympics in London (following google hits for James Titchmough and Sarah Price).

They're well worth taking a look at. Here's the Telegraph photo essay.

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MORE meadows, pocket meadows, and prairie gardens

I've been immersing myself in learning more about meadow gardening (and prairie gardening) and naturalistic gardens as practiced by Piet Oudolf and Noel Kingsbury and others. It's not an unfamiliar topic for me, but I've having fun revisiting it.

I'm doing a pocket native gardening program at the Cullowhee Native Plants Conference next week, so I'm wanting to be up to date.

It's so interesting that our North American natives (prairie species, but also our successional meadow species in the Eastern U.S.) have been embraced by naturalistic garden designers in the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany.

I would so like to visit Piet and Anya Oudolf's private garden this fall and some of the German gardens that are being experimental with naturalistic gardens.

I've got just enough frequent flier miles to book a flight -- perhaps that's a signal that I need to go!

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