In late June, I left my patch of Canadian woodland far behind to travel overseas to the Netherlands and Germany. I was a gardener on a mission to meet some luminaries of contemporary Dutch planting design and explore their gardens and nurseries in my version of a midsummer night’s dream. Above all else, this trip was about the chance to again meet visionary Dutch planting designer, Piet Oudolf on his home turf …
The Gardener’s Speech: Bringing the High Line Home
This past Monday, the Parkdale Toronto Horticultural Society invited me to speak on a highly prescient theme: Bringing the High Line Home. It was a stellar opportunity to talk about the New Perennial planting style and my recent design workshop experience in the Netherlands. I presented a photographic odyssey of Piet Oudolf’s work intertwined with
Piet Oudolf: Royal Recognition at Home
On Monday November 11, Queen Máxima awarded the Prince Bernhard Culture Prize 2013 to garden and landscape designer Piet Oudolf. This lifetime achievement award is given annually to a person or institution who have contributed something exceptional to the cultural fabric of the country.
Garden Design Goes Native
A new movement of native planting advocates is showing us how we can help sustain the matrix of biodiversity upon which all life depends – including our own.
To delve deeper, I spoke with Toronto ecological designer and former wild plant nursery owner Charles Kinsley to learn how urban gardeners can create and sustain a native garden.
Grassendaggen: A Fall Epiphany at Hummelo
There comes a moment in every voyage when you know you’ve arrived. And that’s how I felt on my first-ever visit to the private dream garden of Piet and Anja Oudolf on ‘Grass Days’, one Saturday morning in early September 2009.