We are on the home stretch of the first winter in our new climate. The minimum temperature on most days this week has been around -3 each morning. One cannot change the weather; it is what it is. Thankfully, frosty, cold mornings usually bring fine sunny days, the perfect conditions for gardening, although still chilly. Only from late morning onwards will the garden receive any attention; otherwise, it will be from the comfort and warmth of inside, planning, dreaming, and drawing at my desk.
“Gardening is like landscape painting to me. The garden is the canvas. Plants, containers and other garden features are the colours. I paint on the garden of canvas hoping to create a master piece with my colours.”
Ama H Vanniarachchy
It is a time to sit tight and deepen the virtue of patience. Those fleeting days of warmth last week when windows and doors were open all day with the sun pouring in and the fire not lit until evening was enough to remind me of the approaching Spring. A glimpse to urge me on to get stuck into extensive work outside whilst my enthusiasm is intact. Apart from waiting for the rose orders, I’ve ordered a selection of trees and shrubs for the garden. A few more reasons to be patient until they arrive or can be collected.
“Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Books and artworks are a diversion from gardening during winter dormancy and are a great source of inspiration. Today’s post highlights some favourite Garden paintings and a few new ones that have historical interest but are also just inspiring in their beauty and magnificence. A visual feast for the senses that conveys the atmospheric nature of the seasons through gardens and provides something to strive towards, although often idolised and unattainable in their perfection.
“Half the interest of a garden is the constant exercise of the imagination.”
Alice Morse Earle 1897
Optimism and vision are familiar traits of people who love to garden. When I look out at the dormant roses in pots that need relocating to better positions and the bare patches of earth awaiting plants, I don’t see them. I see the garden structure complete, the pots relocated with fresh foliage and emerging buds, and the new plants miraculously growing, mulched, and adding to the evolving landscape design.
“To paint is not to copy the object slavishly, it is to grasp a harmony among many relationships.“
Paul Cezanne
My mind’s eye sees the roses in bloom between the fruit trees, the standards and companion ground covers spreading with zest. The climbing roses and clematis intermingled vigorously on the trellis wall. The courtyard is less cluttered, with stray pots awaiting attention. The mass planted Fire Opal hedge along the driveway is planted and flowering, and the new conifers and other trees are in situ. There is much to be done to make all this a reality, hence the need for patience—a gardener’s friend.
“The most noteworthy thing about gardeners is that they are always optimistic, always enterprising, and never satisfied. They are for ever planting, and for ever digging up.”
Vita Sackville West
Winter has some time to go, but the small signs of Spring are liberating and rich with promise in the established gardens on our street. Hellebores, Jonquils, Daphne, Rosemary, and Bergenias are in flower, adding a dash of colour amongst the barren deciduous trees. Although the weather is very wintery, the gardens are committed to the coming Spring.
“… I am hoping for better times. That’s how you know us hapless gardeners — by our dirty fingernails and our absurd, unquenchable optimism about next year.”
Mary McGory
Our garden is in a transition state with so little to look at, so I’ve moved on from planning roses, trees, shrubs and perennials to the courtyard design. Presently, the courtyard has a floor of aged fine gravel that is a mess and annoying underfoot because it walks inside on shoes. For weeks now, the question at the back of my mind is what to do with the surface area of the courtyard. I’m tossing back and forth between plantings, xeriscaping, timber decking, cobblestones, pavers, rewilding or lawn.
“For many centuries, Lawns were a symbol of the rich and powerful“
The Turf Grass Group
The trending rewilding or new naturalism garden idea of grasses and perennials or lawn alternatives is tempting for many reasons, and I am all for this approach, especially in more extensive gardens. But a courtyard of grasses, ground covers, natives or perennials restricts the space to a single use. Lawns of sedums, clover, mondo grass, camomile, and tapestry lawns are not entirely suitable or hardwearing enough, nor can their use be changed when entertaining or in varied weather. So, in praise of lawns and despite the current swing towards rewilding, as I’m not part of the anti-lawn movement, I have decided on a patch of turf for this small area.
The courtyard ground surface needs to be practical, hard-wearing, inexpensive, well-drained, and versatile. I cannot think of another option that provides all these features and, at the same time, offers a natural habitat for many invertebrates and valuable life within the soil. The courtyard has been measured up, the olive tree stump removed, and topsoil and turf are ordered and will be laid tomorrow. The large terracotta pots are ready to be repositioned, along with low pots of cold climate ferns- Polystichum proliferum. Mother Shield Ferns are brilliant dark green leathery ferns that don’t flinch in cold conditions. So, tangible progress this week, especially today.
“No gardener would be a gardener if they did not live in hope”.
Vita Sackville West
Arriving later this week are various perennials to be planted in other areas that align with the naturalistic garden style. Drifts of perennials and clusters of roses repeat through the wide front border both inside and outside of the fence, with alliums, grasses, and textured plants to create a softer, less controlled silhouette. This naturalistic style started over 40 years ago in the Netherlands with a group of designers, plant people, artists, and philosophers led by world-renowned Dutch garden designer, nurseryman and author Piet Oudolf.
“Structure is the most important component in a successful planting; colour is important too but it is a secondary consideration.“
Piet Oudolf
The basic principles of Naturalistic Planting begin with opening our awareness to see our plants for more than floral beauty. It is about change in the garden and embracing a relaxed interplay of textures and foliage from seed to bloom and through to decay and death of plants. It is about seeing plants in all stages of development and decay as living art forms that evolve over time. By this, we mean seed heads, full blossoms, spent blooms and dried finished plants.
Piet Oudolf
“grow plants that die elegantly.”
Naturalistic garden design is not random but carefully orchestrated plantings that appear spontaneous.
5 Ways to Design a Naturalistic Garden
- Plant perennials, grasses and other plants in repeated sweeps or drifts not rows, either singular or in groups to link one section to another.
- Use plants of varying shapes, sizes, heights and differing textures. Some spiky or straight, upright, wispy, rounded or spreading to create contrast and use a mix of fine and coarse foliage.
- Use plants that are attractive in all stages – without flowers, flowering- buds, decayed leaves or spent flowers.
- Use plants that may re-establish vegetation and offer habitat for wildlife.
- Use a mixture of interesting plants throughout the year, and pay close attention to how natural light moves through the garden, illuminating plants in differing seasons.
The trick to creating a naturalistic garden is layering with four or more layers of plants.
- Vertical Layer of climbers and vines that will grow on a trellis, on a wall or up trees.
- Structural Layer of trees, shrubs, taller perennials, grasses and woody shrubs.
- Filler Layers are the bulbs and short-lived plants scattered here and there to add a sense of spontaneity.
- Companion Plant Layers are the mid-sized plants that grow under roses or woody perennial more structural plants.
- Ground Cover Layer is the living mulch layer that will suppress weeds, retain moisture and cover the soil.
The idea is not to copy nature, but to give a feeling of nature.
Piet Oudolf
Content Di Baker August 2024
Title quote by W. E. Johns
Title feature image, Roses, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, 1843
The first Image, Thelma in the Garden, American Painter TC Steele