As a landscape designer and horticulturalist, I take pleasure in thinking through the meaning, limitations, structure, seasonality, texture, colour, and composition of plantings that I work on.
My apprenticeship at Swanes Nursery and working in their dispatch department putting on 10,s of thousand of plant labels helps me know species, as does a 35 year collection of books and visiting gardens of the world. Although I do not agree with the green thumb concept, I do think that 40+ years working with plants of the world does provide some instinctive good choices.
Natives on roofs, textures used to soften concrete.
Talking generally for gardens my design objects revolve around:
- Don’t solve problems by throwing money at it. Design by being mindful about resources. Even small plants grow quickly given the right conditions.
- Rely on plants that evolved to deal with our land and climate and thus provide resilience and longevity. Natives are a good option.
- Select those plants that would be suitable for a specific garden environment. An understanding of the garden aspect, hours of sun, climate, wind, rain and soils, is it indoor? These effect what you can expect to grow.
- Develop a composition that could be reproduced in variations in other locations.
- Aim for an end result that communicates care, value, and pride.
- Keep the garden design simple enough so that it could be maintained without the knowledge of a expert gardener.
- Bend some rules.
- Why didn’t I mention colour, texture or succession? Well, they are not objectives, they are essentials.
That lush look with water
With this framework in place, I could move on to the next one. Let’s call it the…
…Functional framework
Providing a shady place to sit, attracting wildlife, producing a pleasing fragrance – can help us connect with and value our leafy counterparts.
If I’m designing a green roof or vertical garden I will usually go for show, large groups of plants that can be seen for their individual colours and textures. Fine leafed plants give distance, large dark leafed plants bring the garden closer. Ecosystem services of improving water and air quality play a role in my plant choices here too.
To keep a rain garden functioning, I need to maintain the soil’s infiltration capacity – or, even better, improve it. The extensive and fibrous root systems of our native sedges do just that.
My gardens generally don’t come close to the vastness of our grassland, bushland or forests. Many trees are tall, which makes them a perfect fit for vast landscapes. To achieve a level of proportionality, I will have to rely on groundcover, a matrix of shrubs and smaller trees, species that are smaller, more compact, and a better fit for the space.
A wetland planting for water quality
Still, I would like to add some structure, texture, contrast, and seasonality. Another rule bender is the addition of non-native geophytes like: Bromeliads for outstanding colour, fruits and vegetables for consumption.
Native plants have the stigma of delivering a wild and messy look. For those that like a clipped hedge this may be distressing.
And this is why colour composition, texture, and seasonality are important. They distract – or, even better – re-focus the observer’s attention. They create a new narrative that communicates care and intent, as a contrast to what is typically perceived as un-tame native plants.
While working with combinations of flower and leaf colours is interesting, what really captivates me is textures and contrasts. Yet I can’t take credit for composition, because my inspirations came from stunning scenes I observed in nature and the many great gardens I have visited around the world. I will say that with creative maintenance a native garden can look pretty smart.
Committing to a native plant pallet in a design comes with its limitations. And that, as it turns out, can be a good thing. It’s something that keeps driving the creative process. Rather than getting bogged down by what a list of natives doesn’t provide, we begin to discover and explore their unique features and elements, whether it is the eye candy part or the functional element – managing stormwater, cooling our cities and improving our health.
Using native accent plants for dramatic effect