piet oudolf gardens to visit uk

The garden surrounding the centre is designed by the world-famous Dutch Landscape Architect Piet Oudolf, who envisioned a dynamic landscape. The garden is divided into four interconnected zones. Piet has carefully chosen the plants according to how much sun each zone receives. We have the shaded, woodland, spring and summer zones, creating a powerful experience for the eyes.

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About Maggie's

Maggie’s at The Royal Marsden opened its doors to visitors on Monday 14 October 2019 and was officially opened by The Duchess of Cornwall on Thursday 6 February 2020.

The garden which surrounds Maggie’s at The Royal Marsden has been designed by world-famous Dutch Landscape Architect Piet Oudolf to be the largest of all current Maggie’s centres. Piet’s work can also be seen across Europe, America, china and Scandinavia with one of his best-known achievements being ‘The High Line’ in New York where Piet transformed a dis-used, rusty elevated railway into the world’s first high level linear park now enjoyed by thousands of people. Piet has also designed the stunning public garden at Hauser and Wirth Art Gallery in Somerset.

Piet’s design involves a diverse palette of herbaceous plants. All of the 12,000 plants have been specially grown over 20 months by Orchard Dene Nurseries in Oxfordshire who have been responsible for planting them in accordance to Piet’s planting plans.

The garden has different zones; some enjoying full sun, others in dappled shade, whilst the entrance pathway from the hospital meanders under mature trees and remain in full shade throughout the day. Plant communities are carefully matched to each aspect: 14 different grasses are involved, a palette of 6 hardy ferns and more than 50 different perennials. Many are unusual and are not commonly seen elsewhere.

Several easily identified features within the Maggie’s garden are typical signatures of Piet’s work and add to the enjoyment throughout the year.

* The use of grasses in large swathes to separate blocks of perennials, allowing the garden ‘to breathe’. Flowering grass heads catch the light and tremble under gentle wind currents to add a sense of movement to the scene. Look out for shimmering Seslaria autumnalis at the front of borders, and the aptly named Molinia ‘Transparent’ towering at the main entrance.

* This is a garden for all seasons, featuring plants carefully selected not only for their flowers, but for their ability to stand through the golden lights of autumn and into winter, retaining an interesting winter silhouette. This not only makes the garden more intriguing viewed from a window on a chilly winter’s day, but benefits wildlife, encouraging overwintering insects and birds to visit for food and shelter.

* There is also a good proportion of high nectar plants which will draw in passing bees and butterflies.

* Typically for a Piet Oudolf garden, blocks of plants occupy irregular amoebic shapes which interlock and enfold each other to offer attractive angled views of one plant through another. .

Maggie's features

• Dog friendly
• Groups Welcome
• Refreshments
• Wheelchair access
• Wildlife Garden

Location details

Maggie's, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5NG

Directions to Maggie's Maggie's at The Royal Marsden is located on the corner of Cotswold Rd via the staff entrance to The Royal Marsden.

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Maggie's openings

This garden has now completed its National Garden Scheme openings for this year.

• Wheelchair access over raised paths.
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Yes, cashless payment is accepted.

Sorry, there is no available parking for coaches at Maggie's at this time.

Yes, dogs are welcome at Maggie's. Please keep the dogs on fixed short leads in the garden and keep in mind that you are responsible for controlling the dog’s behaviour. For any specific rules please ask the owners.

There are no plants for sale for the time being.

Yes, one or more routes at Maggie's are accessible to wheelchair users.

Yes. Maggie's seeks to offer a sustainable refuge for nearby fauna and wildlife. These sanctuaries host diverse habitats supporting indigenous flora and fauna and nurturing local biodiversity.

UK gardens for design lovers to visit

These pioneering green spaces make a brilliant alternative to the grounds of the same old stately homes

While there’s much to love about the manicured lawns and precise planting of Britain’s traditional gardens, what of the groundbreaking gardeners who had other ideas?

We’ve chosen eight of our favourite gardens to visit for something a little different – think modern sculpture, brutalist architecture and clever ideas you can steal for your own outdoor space...

Buckinghamshire

Fans of modernism should make a pilgrimage to Turn End in the village of Haddenham, where architect Peter Aldington designed three RIBA award-winning homes in the 1960s.

Coaxed from less than an acre, the lush surrounding garden showcases an architect’s sense for space – and Aldington’s belief that ‘architecture and landscape design are an indivisible whole’ – with its central courtyard, glade and woodland area reminiscent of rooms in a house.

Oudolf Field, Hauser & Wirth

Piet Oudolf’s perennial meadow is arguably as much of a draw for design lovers as the art at Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset base. The respected landscape designer is known for creating the garden on the High Line in New York, as well as the planting around the Serpentine pavilion in 2011. The 1.5 acre was only planted in 2014, but is already known as one of the most exciting modern gardens in Britain. It was carved out of a bare field surrounded by hedges and Iwan Wirth gave Oudolf complete freedom with its design, which is characterised by drifts of rich late-summer colour and sculptural stems and seed heads which come into their own in winter. hauserwirth.com

Orozco Garden

It seems somewhat apt that Camberwell’s South London Gallery chose an artist, rather than a garden designer, to transform a ‘largely inaccessible’ paved area behind its main building in 2014.

Created over two years by Gabriel Orozco, with support from 6a Architects, its swirling geometry sees bricks of York stone – some salvaged from what was once the gallery’s rear façade – map notional rooms, shallow pools and platforms for sitting and showing artists’ works.

Creepers, ferns and fragrant shrubs selected by horticulturists from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, speak to Orozco’s ultimate vision of an overgrown ‘urban ruin’.

It’s open every Saturday and Sunday. southlondongallery.org

Prospect Cottage

‘My garden’s boundaries are the horizon,’ said the late filmmaker and artist Derek Jarman of the remarkable plot he created at Prospect Cottage, on the otherworldly headland of Dungeness.

It’s certainly an unlikely place for such a sanctuary, with its vast expanse of shingle and views to the nearby nuclear power station, but therein lies an almost mythic appeal.

A garden of great resourcefulness, it’s planted with clumps of sea kale and gorse that can weather the wind and salty air, and dotted with Jarman’s talismanic arrangements of driftwood and flotsam from the beach. In summer, foxgloves, red valerian and sprays of yellow poppies burst into life. artfund.org

Surrey Piet Oudolf is also responsible for the Courtyard garden at Bury Court in Farnham, which is planted with his signature blend of tall ornamental grasses and flowering perennials in a dreamy, meadow-like scheme. The gardens are open to visitors from Mondays to Wednesdays from 10am to 4pm. Visits must be booked in advance and refreshments are available. bury-court.com

Barbican Conservatory

Though it’s no longer the hidden gem it once was, the Barbican’s remarkable conservatory is surely the closest thing to tropical brutalism you’ll find on UK shores.

A lush landscape of over 2,000 creepers, palms and other temperate plants wrapped around the fly tower (the monsteras here will put your houseplants to shame), it was planted in 1980-1981 and is the second largest conservatory in London, after Kew.

It was once only accessible on Sundays – and not all of them – but since spring 2021 has been open almost every day. barbican.org.uk

Broughton Grange

Oxfordshire

With its arboretum, orchard and woodland alongside rose and bamboo gardens, this expansive estate is not short on glorious green spaces.

At its heart is the walled garden, designed by Tom Stuart-Smith, with a moniker that perhaps doesn’t do justice to the three stepped terraces within – especially as only two sides are actually enclosed. Here, a meadow-like tapestry of Mediterranean flowers and grasses is punctuated only by pillars of yew and a stone rill, which funnels water into a sleek pool below.

It’s open Tuesdays and Wednesdays in summer, plus select Sundays, with the National Garden Scheme. broughtongrange.com ; ngs.org.uk

The Garden of Cosmic Speculation

Dumfries and Galloway

That the Scottish estate of late landscape architect and cultural historian Charles Jencks and his wife Maggie Keswick is open to the public for just one day a year only serves to fuel its air of fantasy.

The 30 acres of land surrounding their home, Portrack House, was a hotbed of Jencks’ cosmological ideas: a heady tour takes in great spiralling landforms, a terrace warped by a black hole, dizzying sculptures and – the spectacular centrepiece – a zig-zagging stairway (pictured) that recounts the story of the universe at each descending step.

Scotland’s Gardens Scheme had to scrap the spring open day, but hopes it can take place in autumn 2021. scotlandsgardens.org

Surely few gardener designers have spent as much time atop a digger as Keith Wiley, who has created a sensational space from a nondescript field in Devon.

The plantsman, with his late wife Ros, poured a lifetime of experience into these three acres, having spent 25 years as head gardener at nearby The Garden House.

The name says it all – Wiley’s naturalistic planting sees drifts of unfettered texture and colour trace the sculpted contours of the land, and in high summer its perennials are nothing short of riotous. ‘Especially good are the agapanthus, crocosmias, daylilies and grasses,’ he says.

Check for opening times. Upcoming dates include 10–13 and 28–31 July 2021. wileyatwildside.com

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Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe

Award-winning designer Piet Oudolf once said, ‘The idea is that visitors to Pensthorpe discover the Millennium Garden as a pleasant surprise.’ So get ready for eyebrow raises galore as you explore its many delights.

Bloomin’ marvellous

Packed with over 150 species of shrubs, grasses and climbers – not to mention the wildlife that visits throughout the seasons – Piet Oudolf’s ode to natural nuance is where you’ll find the very best perennial planting in the region.

Explore the garden

Part of Pensthorpe for over 20 years, the Millennium Garden gets better with every season. You’ll notice a rich tapestry of colour and texture, and naturalistic planting, blending the best of a statement garden with the more untamed parts of the reserve.

Launched during the summer of 2000, it was the first public space designed by Piet Oudolf in the UK. In 2010, he returned to Pensthorpe to redesign and replant it – the only time he has done so. In the years since, an island and Monet-style bridge have also been added.

What you’ll see

The garden’s packed with over 150 species of perennials, shrubs, grasses and climbers. And there’s plenty of wildlife too, including brightly coloured butterflies and insects in spring and summer, and busy birds in the winter mining it for nest-making materials. Even after its mid-August peak, rich autumnal colours and frosty seed heads make this garden a must-see throughout the year.

Meet the designer

The Millennium Garden is the botanical brainchild of world-famous Dutch designer Piet Oudolf. In the 1990s he was a driving force in the Dutch Wave or New Perennials movement – embracing prairie-style perennials and ornamental grasses. Now, Oudolf is a horticultural superstar, having designed some of the world’s most beloved contemporary gardens, including the 9/11 Remembrance Garden and High Line in New York and the Lurie Garden in Chicago. Among other accolades, in 2019 he was the recipient of the Society of Garden Designers Lifetime Achievement Award.

Explore our gardens

The Glade Sculpture Garden

Wildlife habitat garden.

© Pensthorpe 2024.

• Park Lodges Park Lodges

Welcome to Scampston

My family and I hope you have a wonderful time and enjoy exploring the Walled Garden & Parkland here at Scampston, as well as learning about the history of the Hall and Parkland, and hopefully finding time for a refreshing pause at the new Pantry Café & Kitchen.

Our award-winning Walled Garden is a stunningly beautiful, contemporary garden, quite unlike any other. Designed by the much admired Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf, it is well worth a visit!

Scampston Hall is one of the finest regency country houses in North Yorkshire, and contains many fine works of art, furniture and porcelain. But above all it is our family home and we are delighted to share it with you through guided tours in the summer months.

We look forward to welcoming you soon.

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About the Gardens

Whether you’re looking for a garden with peace and tranquility, or fun and action you will find it all here at Trentham Gardens.

Discover The Gardens

The contemporary gardens have matured into some of the finest in Britain, described by James Alexander Sinclair in The Telegraph, as “The garden makeover of the decade”.

Award-winning

The imaginative and innovative revival of the famous Italian Gardens was led by renowned designer and multi-Chelsea gold-medal winner Tom Stuart-Smith. To the east of the Italian Gardens are the Rivers of Grass and the adjacent Floral Labyrinth. Both these schemes were designed by eminent Dutch plantsman, and Chelsea gold-medal winner, Piet Oudolf.

Garden of the Year

We are proud to have received many accolades including the Enjoy Staffordshire Tourism Gold Award, Countryfile Garden of The Year, Horticulture Week Custodian Awards and in 2015, 2016 and 2017 we were awarded a Gold Accolade by Visit England.

Trentham Lake

At the heart of Trentham Gardens is the spectacular, mile-long, Capability Brown-designed Trentham Lake. Studded with small islands the Lake is alive with the sights and sounds of a wonderful array of wildlife. The circular lakeside walk takes in views of the River Trent, ancient wildflower meadows and woodlands, through the cascading weir and along atmospheric nature trails. There is so much to explore and be inspired by, including the bold and dramatic naturalistic planting design; ‘modern meadows’ by Nigel Dunnett creator of the acclaimed plantings at the Olympic Park, London. Created for successional seasonal interest and environmental suitability.

The Italian Gardens

The Italian Garden layout is designed within the historic framework of Sir Charles Barry’s original Italianate Garden of the 19th Century.

The gardens have never stood still at Trentham, and in our approach to restoration it’s important to allow the garden to continue to move forward, not back. We commissioned renowned RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medallist Tom Stuart-Smith, to revive The Italian Garden with one of the largest contemporary perennial plantings in Europe. In the Spring we add pots of colourful tulips followed by early summer colour from the wisteria, bearded iris and roses. The perennial displays are in their peak in late summer and autumn.

Discover the Fairies

We all know that fairies live at the bottom of the garden, and Trentham Gardens is no exception! Take the fairy trail and keep your eyes peeled as you walk around our beautiful mile long lake, and through the woodland and gardens where the fairies live.

Meet the Garden Designers

These great designers have helped to shape the Trentham Gardens that we love today.

Piet Oudolf Piet is widely considered to be Europe’s leading plantsman. From his nursery in Holland, he breeds extraordinary plants that captivate the gardening world. Piet Oudolf His worldwide work includes the Manhattan High Line Project. At Trentham he has designed our Rivers of Grass and Floral Labyrinth; the new gateway to the Garden. Piet also designed the long borders which flank either side of Tom Stuart-Smith’s planting in the Italian Garden. “Although inspired by Capability Brown, my planting plans are influenced by early Cubist paintings and the English artist Ben Nicolson.” Tom Stuart-Smith Tom's amazing designs have won him multiple gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show, including a Trentham joint garden with Laurent Perrier in 2005. The imaginative planting scheme for the Italian Garden has in excess of 100,000 choice perennials and bulbs. "Trentham will retain the scale and magnificence it had in the 19th Century, but to it we've added diversity and the human element." Nigel Dunnett The newly introduced Annual and Perennial meadow schemes at Trentham Gardens are designed by Professor Nigel Dunnett. They have introduced a distinctly contemporary understory to Capability Brown’s newly revealed landscape. The main annual meadow – now in its third year – extends to 21,000 square metres, connecting Trentham Lake with Brown’s historic parkland beyond. We believe Nigel’s plantings will create the longest sequence of linked naturalistic plantings anywhere in the UK.

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24 key plants from Piet Oudolf's field at Hauser and Wirth art gallery and garden in Somerset

The garden at the Hauser and Wirth gallery in Somerset is a planting installation by garden designer Piet Oudolf called the Oudolf Field. Here you'll find 24 of the key plants that make up the stunning perennial meadow garden. Photographs: Jason Ingram

The much-celebrated Oudolf Field is a planting installation at Hauser & Wirth Art Gallery on the outskirts of Bruton, Somerset. The style of planting here is that of a perennial meadow , laid out in 17 curving, interlocking garden beds divided by a broad, gravelled pathway. Originally, the Field really was a field – a plain, long, uncultivated rectangle sloping up and away from a handsome collection of stone farm buildings. Swiss couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth added a contemporary art gallery and asked Piet Oudolf to provide a master plan for the whole site.

You may also like:

Talking Gardens podcast with Piet Oudolf

• Discover the Oudolf Field at Hauser & Wirth

Although many see the installation as a garden, calling it a field is uncompromisingly faithful to its setting; the field stretches out like a huge, flat canvas that Piet has painted in great swoops of perennial plants, with no intervening trees or shrubs. In spring there are camassias and alliums , but the planting is designed to reach a thundering crescendo in summer, with rudbeckias and echinaceas, heleniums and sedums, actaeas and veronicastrums. Below is a list of the key plants Piet Oudolf has used in the design.

Colour is in the back of my head not on my tongue – I don't speak colour. Colour is so short. I look at the form of a flower and how it will last. Dutch designer and plantsman, Piet Oudolf

24 key plants from the Oudolf Field

Helenium ‘moerheim beauty’.

A key plant for the late-summer border, with strongly reflexed petals of a rich reddish-brown.

Height 95cm-1.2m. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 4a-8b

Helenium ‘Loysder Wieck’

Its scrolled petals stand out in an arresting combination of pink and pale yellow.

Height 90cm-1.2m.

Sanguisorba ‘Blackthorn’

Its soft, flowering spikes are most beautiful when backlit, as here.

Doellingeria umbellata

Previously known as Aster umbellatus , this is tall perennial with delicate white flowers.

Height 1.3m. Hardiness USDA 3a-8b.

Symphyotrichum novi-belgi i ‘Violetta’

One of the most brilliant of the autumn-flowering asters.

Height 1.2m. Hardiness USDA 4a-8b.

Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Red Buttons’

Adds rich claret tones to an autumn border.

Height 60cm. Hardiness USDA 4a-8b.

Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea ‘Transparent’

A slender and well-named grass.

Height 1.8m. Hardiness USDA 5a-8b.

Succisa pratensis

The rounded pompom flowers of the devil’s bit scabious are a magnet for insects.

Height 15-60cm. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 5a-9b.

Anemone x hybrida ‘Robustissima’

Lives up to its name, with strong stems of pale flowers, washed with a darker pink.

Height 80-1.2m. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 3a-8b.

Lysimachia ephemerum

The airy, white flower spikes of willow-leaved loosestrife rise from mounds of greyish foliage.

Height 1.2m. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 6a-8b.

Stipa tenuissima

The white Mexican feather grass provides a hazy background for the dark, prickly seedhead of Echinacea pallida.

Height 90cm. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 4a-10b.

Sporobolus heterolepis

The prairie dropseed, a North American native, has drooping heads that catch the dew.

Height 45cm. Hardiness USDA 3a-9b.

Thalictrum rochebruneanum

A tall meadow rue, seen here flowering in front of a cloud of the fine grass Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’.

Height 1.5m. Hardiness RHS H6, USDA 4a-10b.

Selinum wallichianum

One of the finest umbellifers for mixed planting, growing here with Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker Red’.

Height 1.2m. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 6b-10b.

Agastache ‘Blackadder’

The long-lived spikes will attract masses of bees around their blue flowers.

Height 80cm-1.5m. Hardiness RHS H4, USDA 5a-9b.

Hylotelephium ‘Matrona’

Pays its rent twice: once with its fleshy, dark-purple foliage and again with its heads of pink flowers.

Height 90cm. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 4a-8b.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa

This sweet coneflower is a native of the central and eastern prairies of North America.

Height 1.2m. Hardiness USDA 4a-10b.

Anemone hupehensis var. japonica ‘Pamina’

A candy-coloured, double-flowered anemone that packs a real colour punch.

Height 75cm. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 5a-8b.

Echinops bannaticus

The spent seedheads of Allium atropurpureum mingle with the spiny balls of the blue globe thistle.

Height 1.5m. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 3a-10b.

Veronicastrum virginicum ‘Album’

Its white flower spikes look good through late summer and into autumn.

Height 1.2m. Hardiness USDA 4a-9b.

Eurybia x herveyi

Previously known as Aster macrophyllus ‘Twilight’, this creates a haze of pale mauve in the border.

Height 90cm. Hardiness USDA 3a-8a.

Aruncus ‘Horatio’

The feathery flower spikes of the goat’s beard rise above foliage that turns red in autumn.

Height 1m. Hardiness RHS H7, USDA 4a-7b.

Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’

In late summer, the appropriately named Japanese blood grass brings a fiery blast of colour to a border.

Height 40cm. Hardiness RHS H3, USDA 5a-9b.

Echinacea pallida

Stripped of their summer colour, the dry petals stream out like mermaids’ hair.

You can find more information on hardiness ratings here . The new book by Rory Dusoir, Planting the Oudolf Gardens , is launched this week.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Address Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL.

Tel 01749 814060. Website hauserwirthsomerset.com Open Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm, March-October; 10am-4pm, November-February. Admission free.

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You may also like, gardens illustrated, 25 english gardens to visit for classic style and beautiful plants, 10 of the best gardens to visit for planting inspiration, gardens to visit in somerset, head gardener at hauser and wirth mark dumbleton.

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Pensthorpe: English Garden of the Week

Pensthorpe Natural Park is a 700-acre nature reserve in Norfolk’s Wensum Valley. Abundant with wildlife and thriving with year-round interest,

Pensthorpe Natural Park is a 700-acre nature reserve in Norfolk. Abundant with wildlife, the Park’s five gardens count Piet Oudolf and Julie Toll among their list of designers. James Alexander-Sinclair explains how naturalistic swathes of planting weave into the unspoilt habits of the reserve, and how the site looks particularly breathtaking when covered in frost on a crisp winter’s day.

Sometimes, gardens can look stunning in winter. Catch the gardens at Pensthorpe on a bright and sunny winter’s day, and a garden that seemed past its best is suddenly given a second wind: grasses are wands of frost-rimed magic, while the fading seedheads of summer flowers are crowned with tiaras of ice.

History of The Millennium Garden

The Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe was planted in 1999 by Piet Oudolf, the internationally famous Dutch garden designer and plantmeister.

The garden first began to take form, however, in the early 1970s, when its then-current owner, Bill Makins, started to remove a million tonnes of gravel from the site, which had been home to the old Fakenham railway line. Following this, islands were built and banks planted to encourage wildlife in one of the earliest examples of ecological planting.

Unsurprisingly, the newly-created ponds proved welcoming to passing wildfowl and the site soon became a thriving nature reserve and home to flocks of birds. Visitors swiftly followed, and, because where there are people there should also be a garden, Bill Makins went on the hunt for Piet Oudolf. At that time, Oudolf was not nearly as famous as he is now and had done only a couple of gardens outside the Netherlands.

Planting and design

The Millennium Garden is a sea of glorious perennials that sweep elegantly down a slope towards one of the many lakes. There is a network of paths that lead you through the plantings and across the water to a small island; paths that you can’t see until you’re actually walking on them. There are birches and tall shrubs that lead on to swathes of shimmering grasses – miscanthus, molinias, stipa, sporobolus and another 18 species – interspersed with wedges of perennial colour – eupatorium, asters, agastaches, salvias, echinaceas and many more. It is, of course, designed to be full of zing throughout summer, but it does not end there.

In winter, the dying stems become sparkling starlets. Their beautiful, intricate seedheads stand proud in frost, with particularly stunning sights including those of astilbe, echinacea, eryngium bourgati and calamagrostis brachytricha .

Recent additions to Pensthorpe

In 2003, responsibility for the site was handed over to Bill and Deb Jordan. They have added a new, reflective Wave Garden designed by Julie Toll, playgrounds on an epic scale and more wildfowl.

The garden is now run by Jonathan Pearce with the help of one other gardener and several volunteers. His job is twofold: to preserve the Oudolf garden and extend it in his own style. Jonathan has put in new bridges, which have brought an entire island into the garden. This island reinterprets the original plants in new ways, and boasts a brilliant view over the rest of the garden.

Further additions to the site include: the Wave Line Garden, an extension to the Wave Garden which features semi-circular seating areas focussing on the sculpture ‘Nest’; the Wildlife Habitat Garden, which is planted to naturally entice insects and mammals, with a special focus on bees; and the Corten Infinity Garden, which is structured by a curved piece of rusty Corten and features a banana plant and a ginger plant.

Visit Pensthorpe

Pensthorpe is always worth a visit: from the spring when the first green shoots show their heads, through the zingy colour of high summer and into the mellow plumpness of autumn. But we must remember that it doesn’t stop there. Crisp, cold days offer a chance to feast upon the frost.

Pensthorpe Natural Park is open all year, apart from Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Entry prices: Adults £11.95, Seniors £10.95, Children £10.95, Under 3’s free. Annual Members are free. Parking is free.

For more information about Pensthorpe and its events, visit  pensthorpe.com .

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The Garden Visitor

A blog about gardens of the world by richard jackson.

Bury Court – Piet Oudolf’s Courtyard Garden

In the American Mid-West prairie states spring starts late. There was still snow on the ground last year in mid-April, and ice on the lakes until early May, but by late June the air temperatures were in the upper 20s, and the lakes were comfortably warm enough to swim in. So what has this to do with an English garden rooted in the Surrey countryside? The length of a season.

Spring in the Mid-West is something that passes in the blink of an eye, where perennials and prairie grasses break cover, dash for growth and flower within eleven weeks; here we cut down our perennials and grasses in mid-February and wait, and wait, and wait……………whilst all around us the joy of an English spring bursts forth. Our temperate climate allows us to have four seasons of almost equal length. This, in a nutshell, is the problem I have with Piet Oudolf’s gardens and the fashionable New Perennial Movement. Spectacular for the three months in summer, then dull brown silver and grey stems and seedheads which look great above crisp snow, but nothing against soggy brown wet soil…….unless of course the garden has great structure.

And strong structure is what Piet Oudolf’s Courtyard Garden at Bury Court is all about. Structure provided by the courtyard enclosure of soft grey stone barns, outbuildings and walls with traditional red brick detailing, the sculptural forms of the circular oast houses with their cone-shaped slate roofs, and the comfortable looking farmhouse. The intimate space created is further strengthened by large swirls of yew, and low domes of box which form centrepieces of evergreen interest, set against areas of open grass (virtually always green in our climate). This helps carry the garden through the winter months.

I first saw Bury Court’s Courtyard Garden in 1997, soon after it had opened and like many other gardeners and designers found the style exciting and revolutionary; an informal approach more suited to our age. The planting had a sparkling ethereal quality, and the choice of flower colour was still either complementary or contrasting, respectful of the human responses to the colour-wheel. It gave our moribund flower-arranging style (which I had been only too happy to aspire to) a good kick in the pants.

However Bury Court proved to be a small-scale and transitional garden, and subsequent Oudolf gardens I have often found disappointing, lacking structure and feeling more like open prairies with their large swathes of tall perennials and grasses. Perhaps this says more about me than Oudolf, in that I view perennial planting as a will o’ the wisp thing, nothing without good structure.

Bury Court’s Courtyard Garden, originally a show garden for John Coke’s specialised nursery business Green Farm Plants has now morphed into one of the settings for his more recent enterprise, an events venue focusing on weddings and an annual opera programme.  But his passion for gardens continued and he subsequently commissioned Chelsea show winner Christopher Bradley-Hole to design the Front Garden, a ‘reed-bed maze set around a pond’ which challenges me even more. This is a garden I will come back to in a future blog (along with a further garden currently under construction).

Oudolf’s garden at Bury Court was a revolutionary innovation, a transition to his subsequent large-scale prairie-style planting, and it was a garden that changed the way I and many others think about the design of planting. With the passing of time the shortcomings of revolutions make themselves felt; we look back and yearn for the best of what we have lost and try and to incorperate it into the new. The New Perennial Movement now seems to me to be a bit dated, and innovative changes, combining the best of these differing approaches to garden design are at last determining the way forward.

Where: Bury Court, Bentley, Farnham Surrey GU10 5LY

Contact: www.burycourtbarn.com/gardens

Note: Open to the public on Plantsman’s Days and by special appointment

Occupying a former farmstead in Bruton, Hauser & Wirth Somerset is home to a vibrant program of art exhibitions, events, learning activities and artists’ residencies, which connect with the local community and landscape.

On View This Summer

‘ Phyllida Barlow. unscripted ,’ curated by Frances Morris is on view through Sunday 5 January 2025.

Exhibitions are free to attend. No advance booking necessary.

Read our visitor guide for more information about how to plan your visit.

Plan Your Visit

The garden is open Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am – 5 pm

The gallery is open Thursday – Sunday, 12 – 5 pm

Roth Bar is open Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am – 11 pm

The Farm Shop is open 7 days a week from 9 am

Durslade Farm Dropping Lane, Bruton Somerset BA10 0NL

Our nearest train station is Bruton which is less than a 10 minute walk to the gallery via our community allotments.

Entrance to the gallery and garden is free, however we invite visitors to donate to local charities who are doing fantastic work within our community. Our 2023 – 2024 charity partner is Bruton Community Library.

Hauser & Wirth Somerset offer a range of group visits during normal operational hours. Pre-booking is required for all group visits, at least three weeks in advance.

Find out more about our Learning groups, including schools, universities, community groups and adult learners  here , or email [email protected] . For any other inquiries about group visits, including garden groups, please email  [email protected] .

There is a car park on-site, with space for coaches, as well as a dedicated space for wheelchair parking, providing easy access to the gallery, garden, Roth Bar and Farm Shop.

All areas throughout the site are accessible for wheelchair users, as well as disabled toilets. However, please ask our front desk team if you require additional assistance.

At the top of Oudolf Field sits the Radić Pavilion, designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radić. It was installed at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in March 2015, following its unveiling as the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in 2014.

We welcome families to explore the gallery and garden, but ask that you do not touch or climb on the sculptures, or pick the flowers and plants. We have many ponds so children must be supervised at all times.

We have an outdoor kennel area with water bowls in the car park, where dogs are welcome to wait. Please note these are unsupervised.

What’s On in Somerset?

25 May 2024 – 5 January 2025

Phyllida Barlow

Summer Art School: ‘Sensing Sculpture’

Mon 19 – Thu 22 August 2024

11 am – 4 pm

Summer Fete At Hauser & Wirth Somerset

Sat 13 July 2024

11 am – 5 pm

‘Experiments in Sculpture and Biodiversity’ Workshop

• Book Signings,

Book Launch and Talk: ‘Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood’ by Hettie Judah

Thu 18 July 2024

Bristol Old Vic Youth Theatre Summer School 2024

Mon 29 July – Fri 2 August 2024

10 am – 5 pm

Oudolf Field

Piet Oudolf, the internationally renowned landscape designer from the Netherlands, has designed the landscaping scheme for the entire site, including Oudolf Field—a large perennial meadow situated behind the gallery buildings.

Carefully shaped and planted, the garden echoes the tradition of classical gardens, but the variety of species and combination of plants creates a looseness, softening the formality of its appearance. Known for his use of plants with spectacular seed heads, Oudolf has created a garden that has interest year round.

At the top of Oudolf Field sits the Radić Pavilion. Designed by Chilean architect Smiljan Radić, it was installed at Hauser & Wirth Somerset in March 2015, following its unveiling the previous year as the Serpentine Gallery 2014 Pavilion.

Visit Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am – 5 pm. Entrance is free, although we encourage visitors to donate to our chosen charity, Bruton Community Library .

Artist-in-Residence

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is delighted to welcome Firelei Báez as our artist-in-residence from April – June 2024. Dominican-American artist Báez has achieved wide acclaim over the past decade for her immersive paintings, sculptures and installations that explore diasporic histories against the backdrop of colonial narratives and conventional ways of seeing, re-working visual references drawn from the past to explore new possibilities for the future.

Roth Bar, Farm Shop and Farmhouse

Roth Bar is a fully functioning, site-specific artwork within the Threshing Barn at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, to mark the 10-year anniversary of our opening.

Created by artist Oddur Roth, grandson of the late German-born Swiss artist Dieter Roth, the bar is a dynamic and changing installation, composed of salvaged materials and objects from reclamation yards in the surrounding area, inspired by the history of Durslade Farm.

Roth Bar is open Wednesday – Sunday, 10 am – 11 pm. ⁠

The Farm Shop celebrates the best growers, farmers and makers that Somerset has to offer, as well as the produce from the surrounding Durslade Farm.

It is passionate about promoting and sharing local talent, supporting small projects with big futures and working with established producers to create special products that you can only find in the Farm Shop. With its own in-house forager and butcher, the Farm Shop showcases truly seasonal produce.

The Farm Shop is open 7 days a week from 9 am.

The six bedroom renovated farmhouse is available for private stays, featuring a number of artworks and site-specific installations by our artists. Durslade Farmhouse is located on the site of Hauser & Wirth Somerset and forms part of a group of Grade II listed buildings that date back from as early as 1760.

Renovated by Argentinian architect Luis Laplace, the farmhouse is full of character and bold innovative twists. It celebrates the natural antiquity of the building by combining original fittings with unexpected interiors and vintage furniture. It is completed by unique artworks from Hauser & Wirth’s artists, including a specially commissioned painted mural in the dining room by Guillermo Kuitca.

Learning at Somerset

Hauser & Wirth Somerset has a rich and varied learning program that creates a dialogue between art, artists and a diverse audience. The gallery offers opportunities open to schools, colleges, universities and general members of the public.

If you would like to find out more about options for a learning group visit to Hauser & Wirth Somerset, please click here .

Hauser & Wirth Somerset supports, collaborates and works in partnership with many local institutions, businesses and organizations. Our founders Iwan & Manuela Wirth live locally and are patrons of a number of charities. Their charitable giving is focused on art, architecture, conservation, learning and community.

Latest News

Phyllida Barlow Outdoor Sculpture Unveiled in Somerset

As part of ‘ Phyllida Barlow. unscripted ,’ curated by Frances Morris, a presentation of 12 sculptures are on view across all of the outdoor spaces at our Somerset gallery, including works from the artist’s PRANK series and works being shown in open air for the first time.

Education Lab Returns to Somerset: ‘Open Art School’

Opening Saturday 25 May, our Somerset Education Lab, ‘Open Art School’, in partnership with Bath Spa University , is a space for experimentation and imagination, coinciding with the exhibition ‘ Phyllida Barlow. unscripted ’.

The ‘unscripted’ Artist Residencies

Selected by Frances Morris, and taking place in parallel with our forthcoming exhibition, ‘ Phyllida Barlow. unscripted ’, this summer residency will welcome guest artists, Jessie Flood-Paddock, Young In Hong, Jack Killick and Hamish Pearch, to spend time living and working in Somerset.

Related Stories

Ursula Hauser: Unconscious Landscape

Oudolf Field and Durslade Farm

Bharti Kher, Artist in Residence

Christina Quarles: In the Studio

Ida Applebroog: Pure Truth

About Somerset

Hauser & Wirth Somerset is a pioneering world-class contemporary art gallery and multipurpose arts, education and community destination.

Behind the gallery there is a landscaped garden, designed by Piet Oudolf, which includes a changing program of outdoor sculptures and houses the Radić Pavilion, designed by Smiljan Radić.

On-site restaurant serves seasonal, locally sourced food and drink, and the Farm Shop supports farmers, growers and makers by stocking the best produce from our community.

Conservation, Learning and Sustainability

Centered around a core belief in conservation, learning and sustainability, Hauser & Wirth Somerset offers a wide variety of events including talks, seminars, workshops and screenings, as well as an extensive learning program for local schools, young people and families. We also have a bookshop and dedicated learning room on site.

Restoration and Awards

Prior to the gallery opening in 2014, the Grade II listed farm buildings remained derelict for several decades, until they were sensitively restored and renovated by Paris-based architectural firm Laplace and local architects benjamin+beauchamp.

Hauser & Wirth Somerset has been awarded both a RIBA South West Award 2015 and Civic Trust 2015 Award. In 2014, Durslade Farmhouse also won the William Stansell Historic Buildings Award.

Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset

A destination for contemporary making and the crafted object, located on Bruton High Street, a 10-minute walk from the main site. Since its launch in 2018, the gallery has presented work by over 80 artist-makers, providing valuable insights into the working processes and rich narratives of their practices. To coincide with the diverse and collaborative exhibition program, the gallery hosts residencies, talks, workshops and community events. 

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RHS Garden Wisley is one of the world’s great gardens, packed with horticultural inspiration. RHS Garden Wisley is one of the world’s great gardens, packed with horticultural inspiration.

• At the garden
• Visiting us
• Introducing Wisley
• What's looking good now?
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• Plan your visit
• Family days out
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• Allotment Course

Creating a perennial paradise

RHS Garden Wisley’s iconic Glasshouse Borders are set to be transformed into an immersive perennial paradise by visionary landscape designer Piet Oudolf, who created the original borders more than 20 years ago. \n \nAn area totalling just under two acres will be redeveloped in Piet’s signature ‘New Perennial’ style. Meandering hillside paths will lead visitors through the new landscape and among bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses, while retaining much-loved views of Wisley’s Glasshouse.

Immerse yourself in Piet’s signature style

Renamed the Oudolf Landscape, this will be one of the largest and most significant examples of the designer’s work ever created in the UK. The new design will celebrate Piet’s renowned planting style and allow visitors to experience his work in a more immersive way, as serpentine paths weave through the landscape and completely surround you in planting. \n \nAround one third of the 36,000 perennial plants needed to fill the new landscape are being propagated and grown at Wisley. Another 117 species and cultivars will be new to the garden and have been chosen for their ornamental appeal, climate resilience and wildlife benefit.

Designing a garden for the future

Designed to be a self-sustaining landscape, drifts of plants will naturally support each other without the need for stalking, and plants have been carefully selected to survive in Wisley’s sandy soil and dry summers. Piet’s plant choices are attractive to pollinators too, and by not cutting back plants in autumn and winter, seedheads provide food and shelter for wildlife. \n \nBefore work transforming the Glasshouse Borders begins, the team must ensure the conservation of a colony of protected Roman snails, which are suspected to reside on the site. If found, the snails will be relocated under licence by Natural England to a nearby area of the garden, where they can live safely while the new landscape takes shape. \n \nWork is set to start in autumn/winter 2023 with the new landscape planned to open in summer 2024.

Produces stunning flowers, from June to September, which emerge from inside its dark orange cone centre. A firm favourite of pollinators with its striking flowers attracting butterflies and bees; this plant promises to be a strong variety. 

Perennial sage with spiky flowers for early summer border. Originating from the Netherlands, it is medium in height, with flowers of deep violet purple. Drought tolerant once established – and attractive to both butterflies and other pollinating insects.

Lovely small grass will feature heavily in the new scheme, in the meadow matrix. It is a slow growing, refined prairie grass topped with graceful dark pink flowerheads, which fade to silver during high summer and takes on gold and orange hues in the autumn.

New to Wisley, this plant has a compact, upright form with broad oval-shaped, grey-green leaves and clusters of pale yellow flowers from midsummer into autumn.

Get involved

The Royal Horticultural Society is the UK’s leading gardening charity. We aim to enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.

The Dutch garden of renowned plantsman Piet Oudolf

Piet Oudolf is 72 this year, but insists that he is still learning. One of the world's pioneers in planting design, he creates complex, highly successful naturalistic schemes that are constantly changing and evolving - due in part to his never-ending curiosity. 'You have to grow plants to understand them,' he says. 'In the beginning, we propagated 95 per cent of all our plants for the nursery and garden. You see how competitive it is, you watch how it flowers, how it seeds, how it dies.'

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Since 1982, the hub of his experimentation with plants has been his own garden in Hummelo, 75 miles east of Amsterdam. Having studied landscape design in his twenties, he began to design gardens for clients throughout Amsterdam, soon realising that plants were his main passion. With limited plants available in Holland's nurseries at the time, he decided to start one himself, and with his wife Anja and their two children, moved to an old farmhouse with a plot of land that was big enough for that purpose. The idea was that the garden in front of the house would be their trial garden, and the stock area for the nursery would be at the back. The garden at the front soon became more ornamental, with a strong structural design defined by beech hedges.

Seeking out the best garden plants to offer to his clientele, Piet came to specialise in large, robust perennials that would offer the same sort of bulky profile as a shrub. 'Perennials weren't fashionable at the time,' says Piet. 'I wanted plants that would perform in a similar way to a shrub, but had the advantage of being perennial. Perennials are so much more dynamic, they change with the seasons, die back, come again; there is somuch more of an emotional connection with them.' Networking tirelessly with botanists and plantspeople across the breadth of Europe, the US and beyond, he sought out the plants he wanted, bringing little-known genera such as sanguisorba, eupatorium and filipendula to a more mainstream audience, and breeding his own seed strains including the now well-known Gaura lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies' and Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain'.

The garden in Hummelo has gone through several major changes over the last three-and-a-half decades, the most recent of which was dictated by Piet and Anja's decision in 2010 to close the nursery; in the area once occupied by the nursery beds, with a modern studio building as its backdrop, is a new perennial 'super meadow', where native grasses and wildflowers mix with clumps of strong perennials. Although it looks almost effortless, it's a style of planting that is notoriously difficult to achieve, as the native grasses will always be dominant and can start to take over, pushing even the toughest perennials out of the way. It is perhaps the wildest, most natural style of gardening yet for Piet. 'Yes, it looks wild, but it's deceptive,' he says. 'It's complex to handle, but at the same time low maintenance. I plant perennials in groups or blocks and sometimes let them seed around, but I can't just leave the garden to its own devices. I'm always editing, taking things out, trying new plants.' Plants such as Cephalaria gigantea, Sanguisorba canadensis, Thalictrum flavum and Sorghastrum nutans are proving strong enough to hold their own in the meadow; other plants are being trialled.

The front garden has developed and changed over the years, too, with the biggest shake-up coming in 2010 when flooding irrevocably damaged the yew hedges. The following year, Piet ripped the whole lot out, deciding that a complete change would be good - the hedges had been photographed and copied so much they had become almost a distraction from the main planting, so this was a chance to do something different. Now the garden is given over almost entirely to drifts of ornamental grasses and perennials with curving brick paths taking you through the middle of the beds so you can really experience the feeling of being among the plants - touching them, smelling them, examining them up close.

His gardens are often designed to reach their peak at the end of summer, but Piet is as interested in the way that plants die, always choosing those that are going to add value in autumn and winter. November, then, is a wonderful time to see his own garden, when a low sun can light up the plants in infinite shades of gold, bronze and coppery brown as the garden settles slowly into dormancy. In his 1999 book Designing with Plants , he wrote: 'Many gardeners see the dead and dying stems of perennials at the end of the year as rubbish to clear away. Plants can be beautiful in death as well as in life... Many species do indeed continue to look good after life has ceased to flow through their veins, especially in late autumn when the subtle straw tones of their stems and leaves are still fresh.'

The form of the plants is laid bare as everything starts to fade: soft arching sprays of panicums or pennisetums, spiny Eryngium giganteum , bulbous black Baptisia australis seed heads, tall spears of veratrum or delicate fennel umbels. It is true they have limited time to shine, but they are beautiful in their way, and it is this sense of detailed, almost loving appreciation of perennials throughout their life cycle that is at the heart of Piet's ethos.As for taking time to garden himself, Piet now has help in his garden as his considerable Dutch height has brought him back problems. But although he travels widely and is in demand as a designer all over the world, he spends as much time as he can working in his studio, and walking around his garden observing, thinking, planning. 'It's all about planting things together in the right communities so that they are happy,' he concludes. 'Patterns in nature influence you in ways you can't understand.'

With his wife Anja in the perennial garden at the front of the house.

Baptisia leucantha.

Piet's studio in the former nursery area.

The tall, strong skeletons of Veratrum album.

The pond in the front garden.

Pennisetum alopecuroides f. viridescens turns greeny gold in the autumn.

Cimicifuga 'Queen of Sheba'.

The seed heads of Baptisia australis.

Arching ornamental grasses against a backdrop of native hedges clipped into curves.

Piet deep among grasses and seed heads in the garden at the front of his home at Hummelo.

In autumn, grasses such as deschampsia and panicum turn shades of gold, blond and russet, while strong seed heads of echinaceas, veronicastrum and phlomis turn chocolate brown.

A Way To Garden

'horticultural how-to and woo-woo' | margaret roach, head gardener

the high line’s naturalistic gardening lessons, with richard hayden

Today’s guest is Richard Hayden, the High Line’s senior director of horticulture. His team of 10 horticulturists manages the naturalistic gardens, originally designed by Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands, spanning portions of the 1.5-mile beloved park that welcomes about 7 million visitors a year. (Above, overhead photo by Timothy Schenck.)

Read along as you listen to the July 8, 2024 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on Apple Podcasts (iTunes) or Spotify (and browse my archive of podcasts here ).

lessons in naturalistic gardening, with richard hayden

Margaret Roach: So happy anniversary, birthday—whatever we want to call it, to you and the team.

Richard Hayden: Thank you.

Margaret: It was fun meeting some of you, at least virtually, to do a recent “New York Times” garden column together , which got a great response, which made me happy. So briefly, I think for people who are listening from all over the place who may not have visited, tell us the lay of the non-land over there [laughter] . I mean, it is a nutty setup when you think about it.

Richard: When you think about it altogether, the fact that it happened at all is sometimes a miracle. So of course, it was an unused, elevated railway on the West Side of Manhattan. And over the course of the 20 years that the trains weren’t running, seeds had drifted in and birds had probably dropped a few things off and soil had gotten created, and so this landscape had occurred.

And when the time came to consider what to do with it in the late ’90s, the idea that it could become a garden because people were up here looking at it in its wild state, and there were some amazing photographs taken by Joel Sternfeld of its wild state that it became this idea that it could be a garden. And Piet Oudolf was hired and Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro did some great designs.

And here we are 15 years later, and it is, I think one of the most important public gardens of the 21st century, because it changed the way we think about how we garden. It’s the four season garden. As Piet says, “a plant isn’t worth growing unless it looks good dead.” [Laughter.] And it’s true. It’s so beautiful here in the fall and in the winter, but it’s three-dimensional garden chess that he plays because each zone is slightly different.

And it gives you this emotionally evocative journey as you go from woodlands to grasslands and different combinations and complexities. And of course, all that complexity leads to biodiversity. We have many bees and birds and other animals that visit. So it’s just a really wonderful respite from the city.

Richard: You’re right. It’s primarily 18 inches. There’s a couple spots where we’ve got some raised planters that we mound up and maybe get to 30 inches or so. And I have to tell you, when I first started, which was about a little over two and a half years ago, and I was seeing these 30-foot-tall birch trees and oak trees and all these big trees growing in 18 inches of soil, it literally kept me up at night. Every time the wind would blow…

Margaret: I would have a panic attack at the thought of it. Exactly.

Richard: And then I did some hiking in Northwest Connecticut on the Appalachian Trail, and there had been a windstorm, and these mature trees had blown over. And lo and behold, 18 inches of roots because of all of the glacial rock. The forest was literally growing in 18 inches of soil. And I thought, you know what? Mother Nature’s figured this out. I don’t have to worry so much.

Margaret: O.K., so you got started sleeping, good [laughter].

Richard: Yes, exactly.

Margaret: But it is. It’s really quite a feat and it’s great that it was inspired by that self-sown madness that had happened in this abandoned space.

Richard: Exactly, exactly, obviously with an artistic eye. And the problem with 18 inches is that it doesn’t… Because there can be warm air on top and warm air underneath, and cold air on top and cold air underneath, so we don’t have a lot of cushion.

Margaret : No.

Richard: So during heat waves, for instance, we have to be very careful to keep things with the right moisture levels. And then in the winter sometimes, we do lose a few things if we have a wet cold snap or something. So it does make challenges for that way.

Margaret: So Piet designed it in a naturalistic style, and he’s kind of the leader of that movement. But it doesn’t mean that it’s all native. And it also doesn’t mean, naturalistic doesn’t mean, like hands-off, let it do its thing; whatever happens, happens. It is a design. So let’s talk a little bit about that.

Richard: Right. So it is about 50 percent native. We did a wonderful hort celebration last year where we honored New York City native plants, and we found out we had 160 species that were native or known to be native to New York City out of the 500 or so species that we have. And they weren’t chosen because they were native, they were chosen because they’re just really good, resilient plants. So I was happy to do that discovery.

And Piet is very much about gardens are for people, and so natives are great, but sometimes there are bloom periods where the natives really aren’t filling the niche or maybe they don’t have enough winter structure. He’s happy to combine things as long as they are well-behaved, and we have a few that have not been so well-behaved. So it’s a learning curve.

Margaret: [Laughter.] Don’t we all, Richard? Don’t we all have a few of those?

Richard: Well, to be a successful plant on the High Line, you have to have a certain amount of resilience, a certain amount of aggression. And so a lot of what we do is manage those. We have a grass, Korean feather grass that was planted in one area, and I noticed in some photographs, in about three years after it was planted, it had been 20 percent of the mix. And three years later, it was 80 percent of the mix because it’s just such a virulent reseeder. That’s one of the things we have to do, is we have to manage those things that want to be too successful, so they don’t swallow their neighbors. Keep the balance.

When you have the garden on both sides of a path, that these drifts of plants that are on the one side also should sometimes be on the other side so that it looks as if the path was added through a natural area as opposed to… Yeah, this continuity as opposed to these are two separate gardens and here is my path, more manmade. And just these types of hints like that. Any others like that that you think about? Well, let’s talk about the drifts maybe because that’s an important aspect of his types of designs and naturalistic style. [Above, Timothy Schenck photo.]

Richard: Well, it’s interesting because it would be so easy to get these super complex gardens with lots of plants appearing all next to each other. But when you’re using nature as a model, nature has a tendency to not… I mean, it can be a very thick planting, but often it’s a repetition of a series of species. So that’s what Piet has replicated. He’ll choose what he calls his major accent plants. And then the High Line garden is actually what he would consider a matrix garden. So it’s a planting of a groundcover layer, often flowering.

So you can have things like autumn moor grass or catmint and other things that will just give you a basis a ground cover, and that’s the sort of thing that you’ll see often drifting on both sides of the path. And then into that are the larger perennials that occur in threes and fives and sevens. Always odd numbers for some reason, but it does always looks better. But he keeps it simple. By keeping the drifts large, it becomes a little bit more legible.

And then many of the new gardens that he does are actually block planting where it’s just series of blocks, obviously never a geometric shape, more of a tear shape or some sort of a more natural shape. But he does that quite frequently with his newer gardens, because it’s easier to take care of. You know what’s supposed to be where, what’s gotten out of balance.

Margaret: I see.

Richard: But here at the High Line, we’re a little bit more complex, so we’re constantly managing the dynamics of any one species. Some things they don’t succeed. We had a couple of plants. I’m very much into Helenium , and I’m forgetting common names.

Margaret: Sneezeweed [laughter].

Richard : Sneezeweed, right, yes, and they just never took. And of course, Piet doesn’t use a lot of red, and it’s kind of burgundy red, the one that he was suggesting here. I think it was ‘Moerheim Beauty.’ We just had to look for other things because it just was never happy.

Richard: No. And it’s just interesting we’re having this conversation, and I was just this morning laying out a Piet Oudolf design. We have a new plaza that’s going in at street level at 18th Street that’ll be the newest section of the High Line to open in September. And it’s the first time I’ve laid out a Piet design. And we were looking at the plans, and it really is, in this particular plan, big drifts of different kinds of grasses.

And then there’s geraniums coming in here and geums over here and agastaches over here. You get a better sense of really what he’s doing. This is the first time I’ve ever done it, but it’s really exciting to lay the garden out and you get a sense of really how his mind kind of works. You see the structure behind what he’s trying to do.

Margaret: I guess it was last year maybe he had a book come out that’s about his career, his projects, and there were a lot of his designs in it as part of the art in the book, not just photographs. And you can see that there, too. You can see these shapes and the plants that are specified to go in each one and so forth.

The other thing I find interesting about the drifts is it pleases our eye, and it works in this style to do it that way. But in nature, if you had just onesies of a million different things, the animals, especially the insects who are dependent on these plants, couldn’t find them and couldn’t utilize them in the same way. So the drifts also serve a purpose, do you know what I mean, in nature, in the natural world.

Richard: Absolutely.

Margaret: These plant communities are not just a million different kinds of plants all crunched together. There are a few key plants in larger numbers.

Richard: And in more of the grassland plantings, for instance, he’s relying on certain plants to have the structure to hold other plants up, which is what, of course, happens in their natural environments as well.

Margaret: Yeah, the meadows and prairies are really grasslands.

So I’m told by a lot of people who have tried to or who have gone more naturalistic in some area of their gardens, maybe made a small meadow or whatever, I hear, “Well, but it keeps changing. It doesn’t look like the original plan. It’s not how I imagined it.” [Laughter.] “It doesn’t look like the picture in the book,” when they bought it from a catalog, they bought the seed or the plugs or whatever.

That’s sort of that, oops, hello succession, natural succession: the way things go in nature. And so let’s talk a little bit about that, because this is something that the High Line 15 years on, or any naturalistic garden even five years on doesn’t look exactly like the plan, even if it was a Piet plan [laughter].

Richard: Correct. And Piet always says a garden’s never done. And it is an evolution. And the garden will tell you what it wants to become. And so when we are the stewards of these naturalistic landscapes, we’re interrupting the succession, the succession being the natural world is moving from a grassland to a mature forest. And that’s generally the course of the evolution of planting. And so we get to step in and say we want to keep it as a grassland, and so we need to make these interventions.

We need to make substitutions for the plants that aren’t working. We need to edit out the ones, the thugs, if you will, that get too happy. We get to be completely surprised by the serendipity of something seeding in, or the combination that you really weren’t certain of, but it’s kind of rearranged itself in the way that some of the things have seeded. It’s being awake to how the garden wants to mature, and hopefully having a somewhat light touch on making sure that you get something that’s pleasing and you’re making the right combinations be successful.

Margaret: But it is a lot of editing. I mean, it’s not just stepping back and going, “O.K., that’s done. It’s been planted. All finished. On to the next project.” It’s not that at all.

Richard: No. And some things literally are meant to be fillers in an early planting. And then once the grasses get established, they will want to become 80 percent of your meadow. And so you have to maybe have strategies for removing a few, some of the taller grasses, the giant… Is it giant bluestem?

Margaret: Little bluestem and… I don’t know what you call the big one, but yeah.

Richard: Big bluestem. Which left to its own devices was at one point crowding out the pathway. And so we have to go in and say, you know what? You’re great. We need you in the back. We need you a little bit more as a punctuation rather than as a solid wall. And so that’s where a lot of the editing comes in.

Margaret: Because you were just saying the different plants and how they almost have a life cycle, certain plants in these designs, and some are almost used as nurse crops, what you might call nurse crops, in the beginning to fill space with something other than weeds that might come up from the soil. So some of your biennials and so forth, they’re not going to last five or 10 years [laughter]. They’re not going to be there because as you point out, the grasses and other things will have filled in.

Those things that are dependent on self-sowing aren’t going to have as many opportunities to reach bare soil anymore and their life cycle will be over from those original plants. So your black-eyed Susans or whatever that you who were like, “Oh, look, there’s so many of those. They look so pretty,” Well, that may not happen in year 3 or 4 or 5 or 10.

Richard: Right. This morning I was placing Oriental poppy, which we don’t have on the High Line. It was one of the original plants that were spec’d, but it’s one of those early interesting flower plants to come up between the small grasses for the first two or three years. They’re not terribly long-lived in my experience, anyway, so it’s just one of those let’s create some interest.

We had the same with… Is it foxtail Lily? Eremurus , yes. The same thing. Really successful, a wonderful High Line plant in the first five years, but now it’s been crowded out by grasses. We tried to get it established again, and it’s a tricky one. It’s one of those so used to having expert drainage and hot, dry places. You make sacrifices. You say, well, that was great in the beginning and now we’ll move on to let the garden have some other aspect that’s going to shine.

You kind of take it to an extreme up there [laughter]. You guys have got Chelsea chops going on. Just tell me a little bit about that method of editing the pictures. [Above and below, hedge clippers are used on drifts deeper in the borders; pruning shears on plants closer to the paths. Liz Ligon photos.]

Richard: Well, I think it primarily comes from the aspect like we have so many plants, and the gardens are so full; we don’t have the ability to stake anything. Asters in the tall grass prairie like Chelsea Grasslands [part of the High Line] will do O.K. with just one chop where we’ll hit them pretty much in late May, early June, right around the Chelsea Flower Show. But we have I think it’s Aster October Skies that are peppered throughout the Gansevoort Woodlands of the Birch Woodlands down here at the south end of the park.

Because they’re in more shade and they can get floppy, I think John [Gunderson] cuts those two or three times. So now I think they did them in late May, again in June, and then he’ll do another cut probably in mid-July. And they’ll bloom later, but they’ll also be beautiful, bushy, just probably 12 to 18 inches tall rather than the 30 or 36 inches that they would flop over if they were left to their own devices. We do that a lot with plants. I think Nepeta , some Monarda have been done occasionally.

Margaret : I bet goldenrods too.

Richard : Solidago , and some of the Coreopsis, too, I think, we hit.

Margaret: Again, it gives you, without staking or anything like that, which would just be impossible, it gives you a bushier plant, which is great and needed. Otherwise you can have a lot of floppy things, especially as you point out in the shady areas. You have a lot of that going on. And I imagine that you do some thinning also, because you have a lot of wind, don’t you?

Margaret: Sure.

Richard: So there are some of the larger flowering perennials that really need to be in the windier spots do need to be thinned out so they don’t create too much sail.

And of course, we do that with all of our trees as well. We keep all of the birch trees and the oaks and everything pretty well laced out to make sure that we’re getting a lot of good dappled light on the understory, because we are known for having this complex tree canopy, flowering spring trees, maybe the Amelanchier or the redbuds, and then the groundcover layer.

And all of that coexists, and that’s what I think makes the High Line such a great place to visit because the gardens are so intense, and you have all those different layers. But it just takes a lot of management to make sure everything stays happy.

Margaret: Right, right. Yeah, it’s a lot. [Laughter.] It’s definitely, definitely a lot. But you were just talking about pruning essentially the trees. And the fact that what all of us confront, speaking of things that change in a garden, no matter whether we’re managing it naturalistically or not, is usually less light, because our trees and shrubs grow as we’re there for longer. And so sometimes there’s the hard decision to even remove a woody plant, because it’s surviving at the expense of, as you’re pointing out, like the groundcover layer or whatever.

There’s just not the light that there was, and everything else is suffering. That’s a really tricky one. But again, no matter what your style or your design aesthetic, that’s one that gardeners face who stay put for a long time and making shrubs grow, right?

Richard: Yes. And it’s not a light decision that we make to thin trees out. But I think people were surprised how well trees actually did on the High Line. I don’t think they expected them to get quite so tall and quite so full. So it’s easier to say it’s just getting too crowded in this space. The easiest thing to do, rather than try to manipulate every single tree into being just the right amount of open, we can selectively take out a tree here or there and open things up. And it looks more natural, frankly.

You can think about getting that next succession, those younger trees growing in your woodland, so it feels a little bit more natural, and then you’re planning for succession. Because if all the trees are 20 years old, all the trees are potentially going to fail at the same time. So now we’re thinking about getting some smaller trees in this fall. So we have this different age level.

And in areas like the Flyover, which is the area people may be familiar with with the elevated walkway, there we’re frankly getting quite a bit of reseeding. Well, the sassafras come up everywhere, but the magnolias, the big-leaf magnolias are self-seeding. Some of the sweetbay magnolias are also self-seeding. So we’re leaving those and we get to select out. And even in our bur oak grove, we have some seedlings that we’re going to leave, so we’ll have different ages. And so it just is creating that, thinking about what is going to be successful in five or 10 years. It’s just planning ahead.

Richard: Yes, exactly. The Mertensia is one of the situations where it’s great where we have it and it looks so natural the way it occurs in these big drifts that go across the pathway, but John does do some seedhead chopping. And then of course, it does need a cleanup in the spring because the leaves as they are fading back don’t look so great. Often Piet’s really good about… If he’s using ephemerals and bulbs and things like that, he’ll have a plant that will be growing up to hide the leaves that are yellowing.

He’s quite good about that combination. I know, for instance, we have quite a bit of Chasmanthium , the Northern sea oats, and we’ve noticed that reseeds quite a bit. As much as we are the garden that you should come to see because we have these beautiful seeds in the winter, we do selectively reduce some of the seeds just so we don’t end up with too many plants.

Margaret: Exactly. It’s tough, and especially on newer gardeners, it’s tough because no one wants to get rid of anything, or compost anything, or throw anything away, so to speak. And it’s tough. It’s a tough decision. Well, the High Line, I think your gardeners told me that best times to visit are between 7:00 and 9:00 AM. [ Visiting information .]

Richard: Oh my gosh, we do get very crowded because we’re very popular and that’s great. But if people really want to have an experience, come between 7:00 and 9:00 AM, or even in the evenings, we’re open in the evenings in the summertime. That’s lovely. We’re open until 10:00 PM.

Margaret: Wow!

Richard: And it’s an interesting experience at night. All the plants are low-lit, so you can experience the… But really the morning is when it’s magic.

Margaret: Well, Richard Hayden, thank you for making time. I know you got to get down there to 18th Street and go figure out that planting layout before it gets away from you.

prefer the podcast version of the show?

One of your best podcasts, Margaret. Thank you. I’ve always wanted to see the high line. I did get to see and hear a talk by Piet Oudolf at Mobot though, and I’ve seen the Lurie Garden in Chicago. Also, I’ve found the perfect way to weed…listening to podcast! Linda Mayer

Was there about 8 years ago and absolutely loved it, Time to go again!

Thank you! Another well-written article and interesting interview! I’m from Massachusetts but had the pleasure of walking the High Line two years ago on a memorable, cold January day. Even in the midst of winter, the garden was lovely.

Thank you for this interview and as always for asking such great questions. I’m ashamed to confess that as a very experienced gardener it finally dawned on me after listening to this interview, that’s it’s not my bad design as to why my beds don’t look as good as they did the first two to three years and that the solution isn’t planting more plants and mulching more, or blaming myself for being such a inadequate gardener. I learned that all gardens evolve and need editing and other maintenance throughout their lifetime. Gardens aren’t static.

As many of us who respect and look to you to guide us in making it better and more beautiful garden habitats for a wildlife, thank you. The positive voices of appreciation aren’t sometimes as loud as the negative, but please know we are here.

When they edit, dot they offer the “extra” plants to visitors or gardening groups in the area?

Great talk – always inspired by this garden and need to visit one day. Thank you.

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THE LECTURE that he’s been giving for a number of years is not-so-subtly called “Kill Your Lawn.” Ecological horticulturist Dan Jaffe Wilder knows that starting over and creating an entire native habitat instead of a lawn isn’t for everyone. But Dan just wants to grab our attention and get us to start to make some changes at least in the way we care for the turfgrass we do want in our landscapes. And maybe give up a little square footage of it to some other kind of more diverse planting, too, like the wild strawberries ( Fragaria virginiana , inset). Alternative, more eco-focused styles of lawn care, along with some lawn alternatives is what he and I talked about on the podcast. Dan is Director of Applied Ecology at Norcross Wildlife Foundation in Wales, Massachusetts, and its 8,000-acre sanctuary. He’s also co-author with Mark Richardson of the book “Native Plants for New England Gardens.”

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Landscape Ideas: 8 Favorite Gardens by Dutch Designer Piet Oudolf

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One way to get a glimpse of Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf’s romantic view of ruin? Join the Disney-size crowds who are shuffling along the elevated length of Manhattan’s High Line Park , where tall sweeps of grasses and wildflowers poke up theatrically through an abandoned elevated railway. Another way to become with Oudolf’s perennial plantings and wildflower meads is to visit some of his other projects.

Here are eight Piet Oudolf gardens with ideas worth stealing:

Hamm, Germany: Maximilianpark

Enköping, Sweden: Drömparken

Yorkshire, England: Scampston Hall

For more, see Garden Visit: Dutch Master Piet Oudolf in Yorkshire .

Hummelo, Netherlands: Oudolf’s Home

When you enroll at My Garden School , an online school where you can take courses with all manner of experts. Planting The Piet Oudolf Way , a four-week course with Oudolf and his long-time collaborator Dr Noel Kingsbury, costs £250 and is one of 30 horticultural programs on offer.

Somerset, England: Hauser & Wirth

Fore more, see Designer Visit: Piet Oudolf’s Otherworldly Garden at Hauser & Wirth .

Chicago, Illinois: Lurie Garden

In Chicago’s Millenium Park, there are 222 types of plants in the 2.5-acre  Lurie Garden , designed by Oudolf to offer “a four-season experience blending Chicago’s past, present and future with bold design, dramatic form and intimate spaces. Its design pays homage to Chicago’s transformation from flat marshland to innovative green city, or ‘Urbs in Horto’ (City in a Garden).” For more information, see  Lurie Garden .

Stoke-on-Trent, England: Trentham Estate

London, England: Serpentine Gallery

“Every summer, the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens unveils a new pavilion built by a renowned architect, designed to stand for just three months.,” notes the Telegraph . In 2011, Oudolf designed the garden. For more photos, see Telegraph .

We recently reviewed Mr. Oudolf’s book, Planting: A New Perspective .

For more on Piet Oudolf, see:

• 10 Garden Ideas to Steal from Superstar Dutch Designer Piet Oudolf .
• Garden Visit: A Dutch Master in Yorkshire .
• Dream Landscapes: 10 Perennial Gardens Inspired by Piet Oudolf .

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IN THE GARDEN

The High Line Opened 15 Years Ago. What Lessons Has It Taught Us?

The world-famous New York City gardens offer a master class in how to grow and maintain a naturalistic landscape. Here are a few takeaways.

By Margaret Roach

Be careful: The garden wants to have its own way, to blur the lines and refocus those pictures you planned so carefully and then planted.

Anyone who has ever tried to create a garden — especially a naturalistic one — learns a few things very quickly. Most emphatically, that change is the only constant. But also that the skills of observation and anticipation are the gardener’s most essential horticultural tools in any effort to stay ahead of it.

Try working in this loose, nature-inspired manner in an urban setting — in man-made beds 30 feet above street level, filled with a mere 18-inch layer of soil — and you have the High Line . Those added constraints only intensify the challenge.

This month marks the 15th anniversary of the opening of the first section of that 1.5-mile-long park, built on an elevated rail line on the West Side of Manhattan. And by now, Piet Oudolf ’s planting design is one of the best-known naturalistic gardens anywhere, a sort of emblem for the style from the leader of the movement.

In addition to some seven million people a year who visit the High Line, it has attracted another devoted following: a fan base that includes warblers and other migratory birds, 33 native bee species and various butterflies, including painted ladies. The other day, one laid her eggs on a swath of pussy toes (Antennaria neglecta).

Such moments of recognition and connection — and the whole immersive gestalt of the woodland- and grassland-inspired gardens — may create the impression that the landscape was created by nature. But, of course, that’s not the case.

There are 10 horticulturists up there trying to foresee the plants’ every move. They work to respect Mr. Oudolf’s artistic and ecological intentions without being unrealistic about how insistent the forces of natural succession can be — even within the confines of a 30-foot-wide planting bed.

“You have to know plants, and you have to have a good understanding of how the plants move or change over time,” said Yuki Kaneko, the senior horticulture manager, who has worked at the High Line for nine years.

It helps “to be able to enjoy that process, instead of a goal-oriented one,” Ms. Kaneko said, and to be “willing to participate in that process on a daily basis.” Her words could be part of a job description for prospective gardeners of any naturalistic landscape.

These are “not set it and forget it gardens,” said Richard Hayden, the High Line’s senior director of horticulture, who joined the team two years ago.

The gardener needs to be “open to the evolution, and realizing that it is never going to be done,” he added. “You’re always looking for the solution of the moment and what’s going to make things be successful going forward.”

Looking to Nature for Patterns and Guidance

To manage the High Line gardens, the horticulturists look to the same place that Mr. Oudolf did when conceiving his design: examples set by the natural world.

In the Gansevoort Woodland, a section near the southern end of the park, John Gunderson, the senior horticultural supervisor, works to stay ahead of changing light conditions and their effect on the understory layer’s plantings.

A canopy of gray birches (Betula populifolia) that were eight feet tall when installed are now pushing 30 feet. Layered beneath them are flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida), redbuds (Cercis canadensis) and serviceberries (Amelanchier laevis), with a complex ground-cover layer of autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis), Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica), betony (Stachys monieri Hummelo), asters and various ferns.

To let some light reach the ground and reduce root competition in the shallow soil, occasional trees and shrubs have been removed. Others are pruned artfully every other year.

The herbaceous layer needs regular editing, too. That means “taking things away in a naturalistic way that actually reads as if it’s been going on, on its own,” said Mr. Gunderson, who joined the staff in 2011.

His intention: “To make something look like it’s happened over years, when in fact it’s just constantly being manipulated a little bit, always keeping that vision of patterns you would find in nature.”

When he is translating those patterns to the garden setting, he may “force them to be a little bit more dramatic, but they’re rooted definitely in trips to the woods,” he said.

“When I’m traveling, we love to pull over in front of a field and be mesmerized by the patterning that’s happening without anyone’s help,” he continued. “And that’s always what I bring back here — not to try to replicate it, but it’s a way of just understanding how things can occur in nature without any human intervention.”

But remember, Mr. Hayden said, that the scale of any garden is far smaller than that of nature. Take a cue from Mr. Oudolf and narrow your palette to a few key plants grown in multiples. “Piet’s not trying to get too many plants into any one area,” he said. “And it’s easier on the eye if you think of it in terms of repetition, and create drifts.”

Making the drifts large, massing more than 10 plants in each organic-shaped grouping, Mr. Gunderson said, “keeps the gardens feeling calm and the plants legible.”

When planning such layouts, he first does some research on how a particular species establishes itself in the wild.

“Does it form a dense mass, or are there just a few spread throughout?” he said. “After I have an idea of how it establishes and moves naturally, I will plant to replicate its native setting — always in uneven numbers, and always avoiding even spacing.”

Another suggestion: Let those drifts of a similar plant extend across both sides of a path. That “makes you feel like the garden’s always been there,” Mr. Hayden said, “and you’ve just plopped the path down in the middle of it.”

The Importance of Well-Timed Cutbacks

The advice to skip the wholesale cutting back of our gardens in fall — and “leave the leaves” to support the overwintering of beneficial invertebrates — has received wide attention lately, and much of the High Line is managed this way.

Another kind of perennial cutbacks, though, is key to keeping the herbaceous plantings in scale. These cutbacks are done not in fall, but during active growth, from around May to July.

The timing and frequency varies by plant and placement — whether the plant is growing in sun or shade. Even plants in the same genus may stretch more in lower light; keeping them bushier and upright by pruning takes extra effort.

In the woodland beds, Mr. Gunderson may cut back the asters three times between early May and the beginning of August, removing the top third each time. By contrast, in a sunnier, grassland-style area of the park, the asters have the company of tall surrounding grasses to support them, as they would in wild prairie and meadow communities. Those asters require only the more traditional Chelsea Chop (named for the Chelsea Flower Show in England, which the haircut’s timing roughly coincides with there). Just one cutback about halfway down is performed, around late May.

Goldenrods (Solidago), Coreopsis, Rudbeckia and Nepeta are among the other regularly chopped plants. Because there are large drifts to contend with, hedge trimmers are often the tool of choice, except close to the pathways, where hand pruning with shears leaves behind less obvious traces of the cuts.

Sometimes certain weeds are cut back rather than pulled, to save time and reduce soil disturbance that might expose more weed seeds to light. This tactic is used mostly with annuals and biennials, Mr. Hayden said, which won’t return unless there’s a supply of seed to fuel another generation.

To maintain the balance of the garden, even species that are part of the intended design need editing, if they are inclined to self-sow into new spots or too great a concentration. Mr. Gunderson cuts down and removes some Virginia bluebell stalks and leaves in May, for instance, as the foliage begins to brown. Yes, there can be too much of a good thing.

Other times, there is not enough, as when some of the original plants specified in Mr. Oudolf’s plans, including sneezeweed (Helenium autumnale) and Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima), wouldn’t take hold.

Beyond the horticulture team’s vigilant, ongoing editing, there is another way the High Line is being made more legible to visitors: with signage, something the gardens did not originally have. As part of the 15th anniversary, 35 of what Mr. Hayden called Mr. Oudolf’s “iconic Piet plants” are now introduced to visitors this way.

It probably comes as no surprise that the complex park landscape is managed organically.

“The goal is to create a plant community that takes care of themselves,” Ms. Kaneko said.

Last summer, she came upon “beautiful lacewing eggs” beneath a leaf on a plant growing alongside an aphid-infested swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata). “The Asclepias was there not to be just admired by us,” she said, “but to provide food to aphids, which will support another insect’s life. A garden should be a place that has ecological function.”

Resiliency, she added, “is the ethos of the place — the resiliency of nature, the city and of people.”

Margaret Roach is the creator of the website and podcast A Way to Garden , and a book of the same name.

If you have a gardening question, email it to Margaret Roach at [email protected], and she may address it in a future column.

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Are you thinking of growing onions from seeds? Here’s what you need to know .

Gardening Products Recommended by Wirecutter

Trying to cut down on weeding time? This Craftsman stirrup hoe  can help.

Garden hoses are unremarkable when they work well, but if they underperform, they’ll drive you insane. These are the best ones on the market .

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To make all that hard work in the garden easier, you will need the right gear. Here are some must-have items , from a sun hat to comfortable sandals.

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