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A wild/prairie/cottage garden in Scotland
Gaughan.david
Posts: 80
Hello everyone!
Having spent a few months sporadically landscaping my little garden in Dundee, Scotland, I'm starting to approach crunch-time and am sure that there are design tweaks that my inexperienced eyes just can't see!
I'd very much appreciate your help.
Objectives
1- Learn how to effectively put together an Oudolf-style garden without making loads of design mistakes.
2- design bed shapes that optimise the space- I don't mind losing even more grass to do the right thing
3- Cover up the ugly fence and uglier gas box (think dense planting, but also trellis etc as an option..?)
4- Offset the grey of the house (and the weather) with some beautiful colour
5- bring nature back in to what feels like quite a barren garden
You'll see my main border wrapping round the ugly fence to the West, past the gas box in the NW corner, and the old wall to the North of the garden (facing directly South). That was my first plan, it's OK, but I'm wondering if my border should be bigger. I'm completely OK with losing more of the grass, and even planting on top of/removing some of the paving to achieve the correct look.
The pots you see down the wall to the west are a mixture of Sarracenia, garlic and random plants I've bought at garden centres. Hardly any of it is consequential to the final plan.
I'm aiming for a wild, perennial prairie feel but hugely open to any level of suggestion. I'm wondering if an experienced garden designer might easily pick up on something that I've missed.
Please take this and tell me what you'd do with it if it were your own project. I've even had a drone photo taken in case anyone wants to sketch all over it!
I'd like to order seeds and get them started in the next couple of weeks.
All the appreciation in the world,
David
Garden from above, in correct orientation. 1.2m spade for scale. Excuse the mess.
Having spent a few months sporadically landscaping my little garden in Dundee, Scotland, I'm starting to approach crunch-time and am sure that there are design tweaks that my inexperienced eyes just can't see!
I'd very much appreciate your help.
Objectives
1- Learn how to effectively put together an Oudolf-style garden without making loads of design mistakes.
2- design bed shapes that optimise the space- I don't mind losing even more grass to do the right thing
3- Cover up the ugly fence and uglier gas box (think dense planting, but also trellis etc as an option..?)
4- Offset the grey of the house (and the weather) with some beautiful colour
5- bring nature back in to what feels like quite a barren garden
You'll see my main border wrapping round the ugly fence to the West, past the gas box in the NW corner, and the old wall to the North of the garden (facing directly South). That was my first plan, it's OK, but I'm wondering if my border should be bigger. I'm completely OK with losing more of the grass, and even planting on top of/removing some of the paving to achieve the correct look.
The pots you see down the wall to the west are a mixture of Sarracenia, garlic and random plants I've bought at garden centres. Hardly any of it is consequential to the final plan.
I'm aiming for a wild, perennial prairie feel but hugely open to any level of suggestion. I'm wondering if an experienced garden designer might easily pick up on something that I've missed.
Please take this and tell me what you'd do with it if it were your own project. I've even had a drone photo taken in case anyone wants to sketch all over it!
I'd like to order seeds and get them started in the next couple of weeks.
All the appreciation in the world,
David
Garden from above, in correct orientation. 1.2m spade for scale. Excuse the mess.
0
Posts
...but best of luck.... his essential plants are Miscanthus, Stipa and Persicaria varieties amongst many more..
I have no knowledge of gardening in Scotland, but just by Googling Piet Oudolf's name you are faced with many ideas.
https://www.gardenista.com/posts/10-garden-ideas-to-steal-from-superstar-dutch-designer-piet-oudolf/
There are gardeners on here who garden further North who can better advise you as to the practicalities of it, but my comment would be that asking members of a gardening forum what they would do with it would overwhelm you with different opinions
It's your garden to do with what you want. You will make mistakes, things will die, some things will go berserk and threaten to take over. Things will be planted in the wrong place, you might decide you need more or less lawn and/or paving. I'm just a little worried that you're over thinking it and possibly losing sight of the enjoyment. (Sorry if I'm wrong ! ). If you can get to it, l would strongly advise paying a visit here and talking to the exhibitors.
http://www.gardeningscotland.com/
I wish you luck
You have a wonderful space there,and a beautiful wall to show off. If it was mine I would go for the colourful perennials,and keep some grass. You can put some lovely waving grasses in anyway.
Last year I myself wanted some Piet Oudolf style to my garden. Another horticultural designer that was a big influence was James Hitchmough who designed the planting at the 2012 London Olympics(he may be worth checking out if you haven't already). Both their choice of plants seem to be based on growing without too much intervention, that is they are not ammending soil and adding adding fertilizer. They use plants that thrive in the condition given, things that don't are not used.
For grass I used stipa tenuissima to give a naturalistic look, it helps soften anything that may ordinarily stick out like a sore thumb, meaning experimenting is easier. I used cornflowers, scabiosa, cosmos and achillea to give a looseness. Then added such as echinops,echinacea and kniphofia. At times the annual flowers went wild and became leggy , flopping onto the lawn . I ended up using some more structural planting, just because it worked better within my urban front garden. I figured I wanted it wild but not too wild 😏
Give it a go and you'll learn what works for you.👍
If you didn't watch it last night, look on i-Player for Monty Don's new series on American gardens which started last night. The first episode had a good section all about prairie planting and how and why it works. It may be repeated on BBC2 this Sunday morning too.