The lessons from Piet's designs are many, but my favorite and most easily adopted is drifted planting. Instead of planting 3 or 5 of something, he plants (where there is room) 9 or 10 or more. In this way, plants that are perhaps slightly common become stellar. These gardens also embrace a sense of messiness and lack formality that is often hard to maintain.
The other tidbit I take from these are a short list of plants that not only look good together, but they look good right now (late summer) and generally have enough interesting form to continue to look great with frost on them in the winter.
Some of the plants you see here are Echinacea purpurea 'Rubinglow', Molinia caerulea ssp. Caerulea, Salix, Allium sphaerocephalon, Salvia and Koelreuteria paniculata.
Images: Nicola Brown, Walter Herfst, Neil Holmes, Marianne Majerus, Jürgen Becker, Jo & Rob Whitworth, and Andrew Lawson via Piet's Website.
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Yep, late summer is kind of dull, unless you like annuals (which I consider too much work.)
thanks for the post, I might add some of these to balance all the green-only most of my plantings have become...
Anything that has an interesting seedhead works for winter interest. Achillea, Gaillardia, Liatris, and Monarda are the mainstays in my garden.
However, you forgot to mention the grasses! Native and non-native ornamental grasses are the mainstay of Oudolf's designs, since they are at their glorious peak right now. The waving seedheads of grasses when backlit in the evening are beautiful, giving the landscape an airy, undulating effect. Oudolf is a fan of switchgrass, little bluestem, miscanthus, feather reed grass 'Karl Foerster' (one of my favorites) and sesleria autumnalis (as seen in the 3rd photo)
I've been seeking out things that have attractive dried seed heads or pods. The Echinacea seed heads also feed goldfinches.
I also love the sound that grasses make as they wave.
Late summer color in my garden must include Agastache, THE hummingbird plant.
Granted I'm in zone 7, but I've got plenty of color, with joe pye weed, ageratum, zinnia, gomphrena, phlox, Sedum, and Japanese anemone.
Love the pics!
My garden is full of dead sunflowers, my mom usually buys the seeds for me and prepares the little plants then I just have to plant, this year she must have bought a different species, they were tiny and died in a few weeks, I just feel like filling it with cactus :(
I've been thinking a lot about fall gardens and Piet. As I drive to work every morning, the grasses along the highway catch the light, creating wisps of mauve, chartreuse, warm grey's and textures with dew and light. I was inspired to photograph them last week for my blog, but when I drove back on Saturday, they were all mowed! sigh.