![]() ![]() ![]() Scatter plants may be placed at random to provide accents and add to the sense of spontenaiety. Primary plants provide the bulk of the visual impact, which may be enhanced with grouping. ![]() Matrix plants are low mounds, such as hardy geranium or Pennsylvania sedge ( Carex pennsylvanica), that provide a background or filler function. This is clear by the authors’ categories, for purposes of design, of “primary”, “matrix”, and “scatter” plants. I suspect this is the most powerful force behind this movement.Įven more than in the past, Oudolf emphasizes the structural roles of plants. This may be a result of the rapid disappearance of the world’s truly wild spaces. Increasingly, gardens that possess qualities we associate with nature appeal to our sense of beauty. Also, people want open spaces to serve ecological functions, from handling storm water to providing habitat for birds and insects. On the one hand there is a need in public spaces to reduce maintenance costs (some designs are intended to receive no maintenance beyond only one or two mowings per year). Oudolf and Kighsbury discuss both practical and aesthetic reasons for why this trend exists. Rather, it is a discussion of a general trend, a trend toward landscapes that minimize maintenance while creating a sense of nature in environments dominated by people. While it is full of ideas that home gardeners may want to borrow, it is not a how-to book about a specific approach to garden design. Planting is one of the most provocative and useful books about garden design that I have ever come across. ![]()
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