What is Wild Garden
Most gardeners understand what is meant by a wild garden even though it is really a contradiction in terms. How can a garden, a man-made creation, be truly wild? The main characteristic is that nature is apparently allowed to have the upper hand over the gardener, but in a successful wild garden this is never actually so. The gardener produces this illusion by keeping maintenance to a discreet minimum and by choosing plants which will not take advantage of this kind of freedom. It is a quiet lyrical style of garden¬ing, a balance between the truly natural and the con¬trived which is surprisingly difficult to achieve.
The fashion for a more relaxed approach to garden¬ing first appeared in the late seventeenth century, when large gardens often included a “wilderness”: an intersecting network of paths and vistas running be¬tween areas of trees and shrubs, and sometimes hedges. This was wild only in that it contrasted with the more rigidly formal gardens nearer the house. Wild gardening as we know it today was pioneered in the late nineteenth century by the writer William Robinson as a reaction to the ostentatious formality of the high Victorian period. In The Wild Garden (1870) he advocated naturalizing “perfectly hardy exotic plants under conditions where they will thrive with¬out further care”. It was he who first persuaded the hybrid daffodil out of the bed and into the long grass; yet even he was content to have areas of more closely managed formality around the house.
Today, the notion of wild gardening has become associated with the idea of nature conservation, and one hears more of putting back native plants than introducing foreign ones. We have become aware of gardens as living communities, not just of plants but also of birds, animals like hedgehogs and squirrels, insects, fungi, and even lichens.
Certain rules of thumb are worth remembering when creating a wild garden. First, the garden needs to be big enough to have its own identity to avoid looking like a small shabby part of an otherwise well maintained garden. It may be advantageous to separ-ate the wild area visually from the rest of the garden. Second, it is usually more appropriate to keep wild gardening at some distance from the house. Close contrast with a neat house will make a wild garden look muddled rather than relaxed and comfortable.
The wild garden should be planned for minimum maintenance. Lawns may even become flower meadows, cut as hay in late summer, with paths mown through them for access. Safe old trees should be left to decline gracefully and woodland plants should be cultivated beneath them. Use plenty of bulbs and shrubs which can compete with grass and require next to no pruning or spraying. It may be a good idea to introduce a pond if the time is available to maintain it. Above all, do not overplant: nature is an economical gardener and gains her best effects very simply, with just a few plants.
Tags: choosing plants, formal gardens, gardener, hardy exotic plants, large gardens, lyrical style, native plants, nature conservation, plants, seventeenth century, trees and shrubs, victorian period