Traditionally, the way plants were organized in parks and gardens reflected a culture that liked to order and discipline nature. Contemporary planting design is not only freer, but also seeks to reflect nature. It also addresses our concerns about how we garden sustainably and in partnership with nature.
Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury
Planting: A New Perspective
Piet Oudolf is the hottest landscape designer on the planet at this time. A native and resident of Holland, he designed the Lurie Garden in Chicago and the High Line in New York City among others all over the world. (He also designed the garden around the Prairie Style administration building at Midwest Groundcovers in St. Charles.)
While I have always designed and planted forbs and grasses in drifts (in odd numbers, of course), I realized that native plants would go their own way and intermingle freely with other plants. As every other designer and gardener did, however, I always featured more flowers than grasses, even though in nature, grasses dominate the prairie.
Schulenberg Prairie, Morton Arboretum.
Conservation Research Institute
Take a good look at this poster: The roots of the forbs are long and fleshy, while the roots of the grasses and sedges have a dense, fine root system. 1/3 of these grass roots die every year, providing channels for water to infiltrate the soil, but as they die, they decompose and become humus and food for the plant. Every plant on earth requires fertilization, but we fertilize our vegetable gardens and perennial beds with fertilizer–drugs–spread on top of the soil. If we intersperse our native forbs with grasses or sedges, the grass roots will provide it from below. The grasses also provide a living mulch.
This was explained to me by Dr. Gerould Wilhelm, Director of Research for Conservation Research Institute. You can read more here: http:www.conservationresearchinstitute.org
Use Prairie Dropseed, not only as an edging, but as a matrix in which to plant forbs.
River Park in Geneva.
Landscape Architect Susan Conant, St. Charles, IL
Pale Purple Coneflower (Echinacea pallida) in front row and Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) in second tier all in a matrix of Prairie Drop Seed (Sporobolus heterolepis).
More River Park
Mountain Mint (Pycnanthemum virginianum) with Prairie Dropseed and the seed heads of Pale Purple Coneflower.
Pale Purple Coneflower and Butterfly Weed in a matrix of Side-Oats Grama (Blouteloua curtipendula), a denison of dry hill prairies. Its seeds are arranged on just one side of the stem, like ship’s flags flying in the wind.
The lavender blossoms of Sky Blue Aster combine beautifully with the copper blades of Little Bluestem.
A matrix of Prairie Dropseed next to a stairway.
Both Prairie Dropseed and Little Bluestem (Schizachyrium scoparium) provide a matrix around my entrance walk.
The forbs at both Horlock Hill Prairie in St. Charles (above) and Schulenberg Prairie at Morton Arboretum (below) grow out of a matrix of Prairie Dropseed. This is Lead Plant (Amorpha canescens), a small prairie shrub. Conspicuous vivid orange stamens decorate the bright purple petals on the 6” flower spikes, set off by silvery green leaves
Even the best planned perennial-based planting will experience a decline in species diversity–highly persistent and the most vigorously self-seeding species will be the survivors.
Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury
Planting: A New Perspective
Sadly that is what happened to my west sidewalk prairie gardens that I planted 10-15 years ago that I told you about in my last post.
So I have decided to remove the Rosin Weed and False Sunflower, and the Indian Grass and Switch Grass. I’m in the process of cutting down the overly aggressive plants now, and will deal with them next spring.
I will add a short grass prairie matrix–groups of Prairie Dropseed here and an aggregation of Little Bluestem there, then intersperse them with new forbs.
I will tell you of its progression from time to time. Stay tuned.