GDS 42 – Small Garden – Piet Oudolf inspired planting plan

View one of Rachel’s free garden design web classes https://www.successfulgardendesigner.com/free-classes
Piet Oudolf article: https://gardenrant.com/2024/01/wild-ish-at-heart-naturalistic-planting-design.html
Piet’s work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pietoudolf/

In this episode I’m actually going to do something that I’ve been talking about for months if not years yes I’m finally finally going to design the planting plan for my own garden if you’re frustrated your garden doesn’t look as beautiful as it could even though you’ve purchased lots of

Lovely plants then help is at hand plants are not enough you have to have a good design layout when you combine design with the beauty of plants that’s when the magic really happen it’s our mission here at successful garden design to show you how to do it and it’s much

Easier than you may think I’m Rachel Matthews and I’ve been a professional International Garden designer for over 25 years and I teach garden design online I’ve been inspired by an article that an weam shared on Twitter regarding the work of Pete odof someone who I have

Adored his work for many many years as many of you know that watched the episode where I design my own garden I would much rather have had a wildflower Meadow than anything contrived but the garden was designed for the needs of the dog and whoever follows me in this

Property assuming they’re likely to have a young family there’s lots of lawn so I don’t have a lot of planting space sadly but what I do have I was going to turn into 100% food and medicinal Garden so the lure of lots of lovely flowers has

Been too strong I’m still going to have some of the herbal plants that I wanted in the garden specifically I’ve chosen remedies that are good for the dog and me but primarily the dog so I’m going to design the garden around those but also the concepts that I’ve gleaned from

Looking at Pete’s work over the years so I’ll talk you through his style and then I’m going to try and recreate it in a very tiny garden which is going to be tough because his style works much better on a larger scale so Pete OV has a very naturalistic style some May call

It Prairie because he mixes a lot of grasses in with habous plants but one of the other key features is the layering effect that he uses he’s an absolute master of mixing plants together so they grow up through one another and he really takes into account the 3D way the

Plants combine and the seasons as well now his Gardens look really good certainly late Summer and Autumn when things are established but I also want them to look good all year round and in the spring so what he tends to do is put things that come up through other things

So in my planting I’m going to have things like aliums pop through the grasses so I’ve got some sort of spring stroke early summer interest because when you’re using predominantly herbaceous there’s not always a lot there in the spring months so you got to be a bit careful with how you do things

But if you use plenty of semi- Evergreens or Evergreen herbaceous that certainly helps some of his work that he’s put on Instagram and there’s some really really stunning Gardens here but as you can see they’re all really big scale projects and I don’t have that

Space so I’ve got to find a way of recreating what he does in a much much tinier space and you’ll notice he repeat plants a lot now I do that anyway but Pete does it a lot more than I do and he plants in blocks which again is

Something I naturally do anyway so the difference with the way I’m going to be doing it is having two plants combined or more popping up through each other I’ve always planted in blocks so it’s very clear so you get the definition and shape of each plant and Pete does that

He’s very careful although he’s not scared to repeat shapes next to each other and have a soft blending whereas I tend to go for more defined shapes next to each other so that you can really have Clarity in the planting when things aren’t in flower that’s quite the key so

That you can see there’s everything’s not a blur of planting which happens very easily if you’re not careful so I’m going to have to repeat the plants more often than I would normally and also learn how to have things come up through other things so that can look very messy very easily if

You get it wrong so I’ve really started to study the plants and plans that um Pete uses and how he combines things so I’m hoping that I’ve looked to enough of his work that I’ll be able to modify it to one my own tastes and style but also

The space it’s much easier creating one of his Gardens on a larger scale than it is a smaller scale so that is going to be the challenge the other thing that Pete does very successfully is is the wildness in his garden is always backed up by some very key defined shapes like

You’ll see very neat clipped hedging and that structure is very very important because when the garden’s very wild you’ve got to have something for the eye to focus on that is solid almost like a visual full stop and that brings extra Clarity so when you’ve got a looser

Wilder style of planting you get away with it more easily without having it look a mess because of those clearly defined shapes so let’s have a look at my tiny tiny plot and we’ll see what I can come up with that’s in a style of Pete even if I can’t recreate it

Perfectly okay so this is where we’ve got to last year I was toying with the idea of getting one of those lovely outdoor saers I’m still half thinking about it but then I’m also thinking yeah I want to buy some land and maybe it’ be better to wait until I’ve got that land

And put it there rather than trying to jam it into a garden where it doesn’t really fit that well so and also because I’m now starting to grow vegetables I do actually need my um poly tunnel so but anyway we’ve started Pete’s work so the first thing I’ve got to do before

I do anything else is get the form and structure in so the simplest way for me to get some shape and form into this Garden that’s Evergreen is going to be with box balls the obvious place would be to have one here and here and then repeating that here and probably there

Too so that’s four in it would be nice to continue that if there’s room in here for one but anyway having six of those one is going to be very expensive and two that leads the eye down nicely through the garden so that repetition in Pete odor’s Garden is very

Vital but most importantly is getting those structures in place especially if I don’t actually end up having that structure is going to be even more important but if I do have it that circular shape with the Box ball here and here as well as up through the garden again that just adding continuity

With the circular Lawns so now that’s in now I can run through my list and start to get other things so here’s my very rough note taking from what I gleaned from looking at Pete ool’s work so I’ve already made a list of herbs that are

Good for the dog so they’re going to go in as well as a few plants I’ve already written down that I want to get into the garden right so off we go let’s see what I can come up with so here’s the very Rough and Ready first draft I suspect

I’ve crammed too many varieties of plants in but for the first one this will have to do and then I will refine it in time um apologies for the scribble but being creative is a very scribbly process I find there so there’s two soft fluffy grasses I’ve really puted a lot

Around the garden so that’s going to be the tapestry that binds it together so steeper uisa which looks like very soft hair and they w leaves in the wind and then the pink fluffy grass called mulen Beria now I’ve never actually used that before so I’m hoping it’s not too

Invasive and also I’m hoping is not the rather intense shade of candy floss pink that I’ve seen in some of the photographs I’m hoping they’ve been photoshopped and it’s actually a softer gentler shade because I don’t want it to be that bright so if the other photographs I’ve seen where it’s a

Gentler color that will make me much happier if it is genuin that bright I will swap it because I’ve used that more than the steeper so anyway I’ve got the soft fluffy pink one here here here here there and there I think that’s it so that’s quite a lot it’s gone around

The garden a few times the steeper esima that’s here here there was one down here oh there we go so that’s at least I’ve tried to repeat things at least three times now with the pink fluff I’m also uh in several of the places some hiip

That I grew from seed last year lovely Deep Purple so that’s going to actually be growing up through the pink fluffy grass combination is here here and here so I’ve put some Evergreens in with a Fatina orus and the acanthus mollus I’ve put that in there and here the sage is

Evergreen so the lavenders more lav lavenders here and lonian latifolium a sea lavender that’s got quite attractive leaves in the winter and I’ve repeated that there and there and another interesting grass again I’ve not used this one it’s like a pink barley it’s called hodium jubatum and I’ve popped

That in here and here I think somewhere else yes there so that’s three and coming up through that for some spring interest because bearing in mind grasses are usually late summer Early Autumn we’ve got the purple aliens purple sensation and I’ve got those planted in groups of probably five

To seven at various intervals around the garden so yeah aliens are everywhere so again that will have a lot of continuity with the color agapanthus is another one I’m not sure whether I’m going to have white or purple yet or Bluey purple but anyway I’ve got agapanthus here and here and I think

Over here somewhere there we go three so whenever possible I’ve repeated things three times so for a bit of for a difference in shape I’ve gone for some purple sedums because it’s nice to have some flat level flowers so we’ve got that with the purple Sedum and the white

Achilla the white ailia is wonderful for coughs and colds and all sorts of Herbal Remedies you can get from that the dill for the dog that’s gone in here along with some Artesia so most of the herbs are in here here and then some height at the back

Here probably an Aranda donx or possibly a black bamboo um little Evergreen Pine in here perovskia here some echinops oh and some um penum with the black flowers there that will go well with the Purple Sage and calamagrostis I’ve got that planted a couple of places euphobia

Weni for some Evergreen and spring color easia again another herb oh and some sullum marinum which is milk thistle another very good liver tonic so I will have a think on this but at least that first draft is finally finally done after goodness knows nearly two years now Garden designers Gardens and

Cobbler’s shoes there’s the saying goes hopefully this episode is giv you an idea of what can be done even in a small space for those of us that love a slightly more natural Wilder feel to our Gardens so until next time take Care