Informal Planting Flashcards
What are the features of informal design?
Irregular shapes within design.
Plantings less restricted by shape and free flowing.
Full colour palette
Planting in odd numbers
Planted water features
Structure and shape as well as flowering for woody perennials
Lovely plantings that obscure the view beyond
Naturalistic plantings
Name three designers
Gertrude Jekyll
William Robinson
Vita Sackville-West
What was Jekyll known for?
Lots of flowering perennials with ribbons of colour.
Hestercombe House, Somerset
Mustead Wood, Busbridge Surrey
What was Vita Sackville West known for
Range of herbaceous perennials and other plantings interspersed with key Evergreen plants. However, despite some formality it was informal in it’s setting.
Sissinghurst Castle., Kent
Is self-seeding formal or informal?
INFORMAL
Plants are allowed to spread and self-seed.
good for biodiversity
EXAMPLES:
Phlomis russeliana (food source for overwintering)
Ornamental grasses (nesting material and over wintering)
Describe a cottage garden
Informal
Functional using ornamental and edible plants which are often intermingled.
Have little or no lawn because they take up space that could be used for other plant e.g. herbs and cut flowers
What is matrix planting?
A way of gardening in which multiple species are planted to replicate a natural appearance.
A design that mimics one found naturally.
OTHER CHARACTERISTICS:
Bold drifts of bright native flowers.
A sense of drama and impact.
Less maintenance than traditional gardens.
Rather than neat static rows of plants found in traditional gardens, the naturalistic garden is more diverse group of plant species with all year interest and although designed, appears unstudied.
Supoorts natural weed control,
Explain plant numbers in naturalistic planting
Odd numbers
Bulbs
Perennials
Grasses
Extends season
Modern designers
Piet Oudolf - naturalistic mostly Her. Perr) but w/o need of staking or irrigation
LESS IS MORE (fewer kinds of plants but repeated across the area)
Wisley perennial borders
Millenium Garden, Pensthorpe Norfolk.
Water features
Beds
Borders
Containers ALSO Add
Water feature: improves control of various pests and disease.
Encouraging parasites and predators to deal with aphids etc.
Plants to use in a water feature?
Marginals: need roots in water. Transition between water and ground. They help amphibious creature to get in and out.
Deep water: Leaves sit on the top. WATER LILLIES:
Floating aquatics. They float across the pond.
Oxygenators (if needed);
List 2 marginals
Caltha palustris (marsh marigold)
Pontederia cordata (Pickerel weed)
List 1 deep water plants
Nymphaea “Gladstoniana’
- these plants grow in water that is between 30–90 cm deep.
- They help to reduce algae by cutting down the light that reaches the water surface.
List 2 surface floaters
Hydrocharis morsus-ranae (Frogbit)
Pistia stratiotes (Water lettuce tender)
These plants reduce amount of light reaching the water, but care must be taken not to let them smother or kill the oxygenators
List two oxygenators
Ceratophyllum demersum (Rigid Hornwort)
Potamogeton crispus (Curly leaf pondweed)
These are submerged plants that help to oxygenate the water and help keep it clear of algae by competing for nutrients in the water, and are essential if the pond is to be stocked with fish.