Garden Design Trends: Interplanting and Plant Communities

The Daily Telegraph garden designed by Sarah Price.

Landscape architect Thomas Rainer has a new post on his blog looking at some current garden design trends. Two of these trends intrigued me: what Rainer calls “interplanted everything” and another he calls “community gardens” (by which he means plant communities not allotments).

Rainer says, “Massing is out.  Highly interplanted, mixed schemes are in.”  It’s a design aesthetic that mimics nature’s diversity, but in a somewhat more compressed form. The example he uses is the striking garden at Arthritis Research UK. You can see a video of that garden here. Rosalind Creasy has demonstrated, this same interplanting strategy can be used with edible and medicinal plants.

Another related design strategy are gardens inspired by wild plant communities. The example Rainer cites is the Daily Telegraph garden seen in the picture above. You can watch a video about that garden here.

Now how do I get Sarah Price to redo our backyard?

Have you seen a new garden you really like in the past year? If so, tell us about it in the comments . . .

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4 Comments

  1. My bf’s aunt is retired and has the most beautiful garden. They have a lot more money and time to spend on it, but I am still super jealous. Raised beds with automatic waterers built in. Stone walking paths. Roses. A fountain.

  2. I’ve been reading about potager gardens. This might be a good blend for those wanting to try plant communities and still retain a sense of order.

  3. Saw the video, the mixed schemes were better than I expected them to be to be honest. I’m still a huge fan of traditional English gardens and would definitely opt for a grand scale if I could afford it.

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