Design and choices

The naturalistic style has come to encapsulate …... imagery of the open countryside. …. It brings us into direct contact with living nature and the processes of seasonal cycles. Michael King 

The first thing to say is that I have always been suspicious about the use of grasses in contemporary gardens. I adore the flowery meadows that are now so popular. The look of unimproved grassland, with its succession of flowering plants sprinkled among the texture, with the addition of extra, colourful, natural flowers can be stunning in the right context.

However, in France we have a courtyard garden, and not a garden that flows naturally into a distant landscape, where this kind of planting is to my mind most appropriate. In most of the consciously designed village and urban gardens that I have seen, where grasses are planted in clumps to edge paths or mixed with flowering plants, it has seemed to me to be a fashion statement rather than an ongoing positive. But my ideas are changing!

I am taking my major inspiration from the courtyard garden at Durslade Farm, where one small area is planted in the shade of old farm buildings. This equates much more to our situation than Oudolf Field does, and although I would not expect to reproduce it, I can look closely at the way that the grasses form green shapes and paths and  punctuate the planting. Sesleria autumnalis is low-growing and bright green towards the end of the year, when the flowering plants tend to be losing colour. Deschampsia goldtau throws a feathery spray of seed heads that wave and flutter in the breeze. I will investigate these grasses. Where shall I put them? In structural drifts, is the way I am thinking.

When it comes to the flowering perennials, I need some that appeal to us, are not over-bred and do not need staking. They will be left all though the winter, so they need to keep a good structure or retain seed heads, giving some texture to what might otherwise be rather a barren look. Euphorbia and alchemilla mollis I already have, potted up from seedlings found in the garden in Dorset. Thalictrum, Astrantia, Aster, Echinops, Persicaria, Sanguisorba, Echinacea, Veronica, Salvia. Sedum, Achillia, Geranium, Papava, all spring to mind, but I must be careful to choose the right cultivars. That will be the result of lots of research and then finding which ones can be obtained at a reasonable cost. Many happy hours ahead, with my nose in my books and going down the digital rabbit hole.