These pictures are of a large flower bed that we call the well bed because that's where our well is - right beside the blue spruce, but hidden from view.
Beyond the well bed in a low area there is our pond, and behind that in the second picture you can see a huge flower bed. It's more than 150 feet long and 20 feet wide. We used to call it the Oudolf bed, after Dutch garden guru Piet Oudolf, whose ideas inspired that planting style.
For the past three years, I've treated this bed as a wild garden or meadow, doing minimal weeding and maintenance, allowing lots of self-seeding. It's largely populated with North American native perennials - most of which we grew from seed - plus ornamental grasses.
It still looks wonderful, even though I decided to abandon it to cut our work load down. I'll write more about this bed in a future post.
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Beautiful Yvonne. I must rethink my "wild" garden. I've let it go but it's becoming more wild than garden!! I think a little more work in the beginning equals a little less work later on!
ReplyDeleteThanks!!
OH I've added Oudolf's book to my shopping list!!
ReplyDeleteAnd while I'm at it...send me a note on how I can order your book "Basic Gardening"!! I would love to add it to my collection!
I look forward to reading more about your Oudolf border. I too have moved toward more self-seeding and leaving some of the design to nature's lottery.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful garden, mine is a disgrace as you'll see if you visit my blog!!!
ReplyDeleteGill from Brampton!!