Designing with Randomness: A Masterclass in Planting Design

It’s a wrap. And yes, there is a recording!

On Saturday, The New Perennialist Talks presented a masterclass on the leading-edge with James Hitchmough, Professor Emeritus of University of Sheffield, a genius innovator and iconoclast in modern planting design.

The 90-minute plus session on Designing with Randomness more than lived up to the masterclass title.  A gifted communicator, James rolled out a crystal clear framework for how to plan, create and manage spectacular nature-like plantings for optimal wow factor and ecological value.

Working with a combination of sowing specific seed mixes and planting, he has cultivated the ability to achieve stunning and reliable results simply not possible with one method alone.

Of course, the devil is the details – particularly in how he selects his plant palettes and calibrates the custom seed mixes. It’s also about how the site is prepared and how the plantings are managed over time. Thankfully, he covered all of that and more – most importantly, James gave us all the info we need to start doing it ourselves, with clear instructions applicable to virtually any given context.

His presentation was followed up by a lively Q&A where I moderated questions from the virtual audience. Again, his brilliance was on full display and incredible to experience in real time.

Let it be said. This was our must successful talk ever. Over 480 people registered from all over the world to stream into the event. And the word of mouth reviews have been tremendous.

I knew this talk would be good. I just didn’t realize it would be this good.  It’s also way too good to keep to myself.

Please email tony@thenewperennialist.com if you wish to view the recording for the original registration fee of $20 US. Good for 30 days until further notice.

A masterclass in ‘Sowing Beauty’

The focus here is on Managing Density and Layering in Nature-like Plantings where James shares key principles for success to create wildly beautiful herbaceous plant communities to supercharge biodiversity.

Here is his own description of the presentation:

Random repeating patterns are quintessential to most nature-like planting, whether it is herbaceous or woody, meadows or woodland. Also key is layering, but when you put these together the ensuing complexity can be difficult to conceptualise and document in conventional planting plans.

This talk addresses these issues both in terms of fundamental principles of how to arrange plants in space, and what are the ecological as well as aesthetic rules that govern this. A range of my design projects are used as case studies to demonstrate how to do this in practice with herbaceous plant communities, with both planting and seeding.

Horticultural Ecologist, provocateur & innovator

James Hitchmough has been on something of a roll lately.

He was recently honoured with the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Council of the Society of Garden Designers (SGD) in the UK for his outstanding contribution to the landscape and garden design profession.

Now officially retired from university life, the reality is he has kicked into an even higher gear with a slew of international collaborations while at the same time undertaking the creation of a new garden, meadows and wood pasture at his family home in rural South Somerset

The Society put together this marvellous profile, which is really worth watching to get a sense of the man and his work.

Official bio (from the man himself)

James completed a BSC (Hons.) in Environmental Horticulture in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bath in 1979, and a PhD in Database Design for Plant Selection in 1984. He worked as a Lecturer/Senior Lecture at Burnley College, University of Melbourne, Australia from 1983-93. James commenced as Reader in the Department of Landscape, University of Sheffield in 1995, was appointed Professor in Horticultural Ecology in 2004, and Head of Department from 2014-18. He retired in September 2022.

In parallel with his academic career, James has always worked as a consultant on landscape projects around the world, often using these to translate his research into practice and policy. He was one of the two lead planting designers on the London Olympic Park from 2007-14, following the publication of “The Dynamic Landscape” a seminal text on the application of nature-like planting to the urban realm.

Since 2010 he has focused on projects in China, often in collaboration with Chinese Government agencies to advance the use of local native species in large scale nature-like design projects, involving more than 50 visits and expeditions. Post his retirement (not really a retirement at all) James continues to work on design projects, currently in the UK, China, Australia, Spain and Oman.

He continues to be in demand as a speaker around the world, which makes it even more of a honour to be able to offer this masterclass.

Absolutely not to be missed.

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Feature image: Tom Stuart-Smith’s Barn Garden, Photography © Andrea Jones/courtesy TST / with permission from Timber Press