Tag Archives | Piet Oudolf

Moonlighting

Written by Tovah Martin

We are thrilled to have Tovah Martin contributing to Gardening Gone Wild. She is a freelance writer, lecturer, and author of over a dozen garden books including the recently published The New Terrarium. Tovah says that she has a problem with bulbs. It’s called obsession. The fires of infatuation were fanned when she chronicled Piet Oudolf and Jacqueline van der Kloet’s New York Botanical Garden installation for Seasonal Walk at NYBG. And multiple trips to Holland only made her heart race faster into the bulbosphere. Read more about what Tovah’s up to on her website. Fran Sorin

DSC_0641.JPG-allium Shoulders hunched, hood up, muffler enwrapped, I saw the flashlight coming up behind me. So I fell into step with my neighbor on our evening walk. Briefly, we exchanged pleasantries. Then she got immediately to the grit. “So,” she wanted to know, “you’ve been digging…” and she let it dangle. I knew what she was hinting at. I knew what was on her mind. “2,250 bulbs,” is all I answered. “Wait and see.”

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The High Line – A Breathtaking Public Green Roof Garden in NYC Built on Elevated Railroad Tracks

Visiting the High Line is one of those magical experiences where once you taste it, you’ll want to go back for more. Several flights of stairs above the ground, designed on old railroad tracks (in operation from 1934-1980 ) with the buildings of Manhattan and the Hudson River as a backdrop, the High Line is paradoxically both a soothing and extraordinarily stimulating public park.

 

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GGW Plant Pick of The Month- Sesleria

A couple of years ago while visiting the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago I was attracted to several groupings of a striking yellow-green tufted grass that I did not recognize. It was compact in its growth habit (10-12″H x 10-12″W), and had silvery inflorescences that were about 18″H. It was growing in full sun yet maintained a bright, crisp color. I later determined it was Sesleria, or moor grass.

Lurie Garden- Chicago, Illinois

Sesleria seems to be an under-used grass, at least here in the Midwest. This summer, I saw several species growing in Piet Oudolf’s garden in the Netherlands and Roy Diblik’s garden (Northwind Perennial Farm) in Wisconsin. I realized I should start experimenting with Sesleria in my own projects. In an effort to raise awareness of the genus, I’ve chosen to highlight it as the GGW Plant Pick of The Month. Continue Reading →

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Oudolf Nursery & Garden- Hummelo, The Netherlands

One of the highlights of summer was my first trip to Europe, specifically to Piet & Anja Oudolf’s nursery and private garden in The Netherlands. I went for their Grass Days.

Europe 256

Much like Fran Sorin (as she noted in her fabulous three part interview last month), I am a huge fan of Oudolf’s unique style. His gardens intrigue me and his design aesthetic influences my work. I’ve enjoyed all of his books. My close proximity to the Lurie Garden at Millennium Park in Chicago provides seasonal opportunities to appreciate the development of one of his grand scale gardens and study plant combinations in person.

You might then imagine my excitement when the opportunity to travel to The Netherlands presented itself! Continue Reading →

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Piet Oudolf Interview – Part III

Echinops

For Part I, click here. For Part II, click here.

A Conversation With Piet

It is important to understand that an Oudolf garden does not begin to show itself until mid- to late summer, when most of the perennials and grasses have matured and flowered so that the garden is full of texture, color and scale. But for me, his gardens really come into their own in the fall, when the grasses have matured into their straw-brown color or reddish and purple tones and other perennials are swaying in the breeze, many of them with seedheads and some still in bloom. Continue Reading →

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