Discover the art of naturalistic planting with RHS Horticultural Advisor Nick Turrell in this informative video! Nick reveals his top 3 secrets to replicating Piet Oudolf’s iconic prairie planting style, known for its stunning visual appeal.
Learn practical tips on plant selection, layering, and seasonal interest that will transform your outdoor space into a vibrant tapestry of colour and texture.
00:00 – History of prairie planting
01:29 – Make a plant list and stick to it
02:20 – Repetition
02:58 – Don’t over plant
03:23 – Chop, drop and mulch on top
03:46 – Patience
Useful links:
https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-design/prairie-planting-creation-maintenance
https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley/articles/oudolf-landscape
Filmed in the redesigned Oudolf Landscape at RHS Garden Wisley – https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley/garden-highlights/oudolf-landscape
17 Comments
My mom and I once weeded a public garden that had been neglected. We anticipated that with the removal of the weeds the garden would look greatly improved.
It looked worse.
Yes, the planted plants were the worse for wear after fighting with the invaders. That accounted for it being suboptimal by some measures. The bigger issue was that the garden also looked very stiff and static after the weeds were removed.
It needed the movement and softeness the weeds (mostly grasses) gave it.
Great little video. 3 secrets indeed. Just need the discipline to follow them.
Thank you 🌼
❤❤❤
Another brilliant video. Thank you.
Always have loved guara.And so many others that blow in the wind.
Great video 😍
Less can never be more. More doesn’t define better.
Thumbnail looks like Hannibal Lecter 😂
Amusing to hear how we moved on from the 1970s and 80s gardening habits but you also unwittingly show how we've regressed & continue to miss opportunities to raise awareness. Oudolf also emphasized the use of natural and nativar plant material & leaving seedheads and stems for invertebrates over winter but that's not mentioned despite globally losing 73% of species since those 1970s. Also, where's the real wildlife shelter in the huge new redesign scheme? Okay, it goes elsewhere on site at Wisley but remember most Uk folk don't have an ' elsewhere', they just have a postage stamp sized yard at most and this is an educational video.( Do you think most viewers know one basic fact on species decline? 20% Uk species loss since 70s is cause they were already species depleted) It's the horticultural bubble mindset isn't it? So hard to burst
Lovely if you have the space to plant en masse.
Really good. Been a big fan of this type of planting. Look forward to visiting next year.
Brilliant!
Sleep
Creep
Leap…
Uhmm
I just visited the garden he designed in Tokyo. It's probably much smaller than his more famous gardens but very inspirational to see coming in to winter with so much colour and structure.
Great clip… Hope to visit Wisley before too long and see Oudolf's plantings. His books have been a real source of inspiration. Recognizing the ecological importance of drifts, seed heads, etc. is another laudable element of Oudolf's work.
The photo you used in the video isn’t the Royal Crescent.
I would expect more from the RHS channel… It's a very reductive way of seeing Piet Oudolf's style… Point number one : while Piet started with block planting, he doesn't do it much any more. He transitioned into matrix planting, where there is a basic matrix, usually a couple of grasses, or a grass and a groundcover, and he dots around islets of plants or isolated big plants. Today, he mostly mixes matrices and blocks, complexifying the matrices by including more than a couple plants. Don't overplant is true for matrix planting, but again, it's not the general rule… There is a more modern style where you put plugs of groundcovers absolutely everywhere, something Thomas Rainer advocates for example. Because what Piet used to do is plant big pots, like 5-7 litre pots, with gaps around. Sure it looks good quickly, but it has two MASSIVE drawbacks for gardeners : you need a lot of watering until they establish, and you need a lot of weeding too… Some of Piet's early gardens were crazy high maintenance for the people taking care of the gardens after Piet has left. As a result, he plants a lot more densely today.
And as someone who's tried for years to do a naturalistic garden, I would advise against trying to do it the Oudolf's way. For once, in all of his books he refuses to give you the complete list of plants that look good together. He will give you general rules like you need contrast, or ombellifers look good around most stuff, or forget about colors as long as you have contrast etc… The issue is that the person who actually writes the books, Noel Kingsburry, doesn't even understand what Piet is on about half the time. He admits it in later books, saying "I don't know what we were on about in that book to be honest, and that chapter is just there because we needed to put something there". Piet talks about the sky connecting with the Earth when speaking about flower shapes, he talks about a sense of vastness and freedom, connection to nature blablabla, and advises you to find your own combinations, what makes sense to you… but in the end there is nothing practical, nothing obvious. Only in ONE book does he give examples of combinations. And he shares his plans for gardens and stuff. But even with that, good luck making a whole garden as harmonious as he does… The problem is, we amateurs don't have the money to buy 25 plants of one kind and do big swooping blocks or matrices. We buy 3-5 plants of one thing, or we sow stuff that will take years to look good with an insane amount of weeding in between… So while his gardens are stunning, I would argue they are an absolutely terrible model to follow for our borders… The general rules yes : don't focus on colors but on shapes, include grasses and perennials that look good in winter. But DO NOT try to reproduce what Piet does. He knows too much about plants, shapes, and has access to too many plants in bulk. He spent a lifetime of growing, selecting, and trying combinations. We don't have that luxury. He also always makes plans for a virgin area. We don't have the luxury to remove everything and start from scratch, we'd be bankrupt. And he doesn't give us practical example of going in an established garden and modify it.