GOING TO SEED
Good storage is all about keeping things safe — and easily accessible when you need them. Plants do this very well in bulbs, leaves and seed heads, which can be as decorative and fascinating as flowers
T RADITIONAL gardeners will have their plots ultra-tidy now, with all the dried stalks of summer long cut down and consigned to the tip or compost. Natural (or less diligent) gardeners will be contemplating a picture of dried seed heads and bleached grasses that has its own beauty.
This has been one of the biggest changes in garden thinking in the new green era — the enjoyment of the whole cycle of plant growth, from the first green shoots in spring to the withered leaves of late winter. “The decay, collapse and death of the garden are as fascinating as the awakening of spring or the seas of flowers in summer,” declared radical Dutch gardener Henk Gerritsen.
His sometime collaborator, Piet Oudolf, is renowned for the beauty of his winter landscapes, based on a skilful selection of grasses and perennials that retain interesting form even when dead.
But, of course, a garden is never really dead. Its minute life ticks on in insect eggs and pupae, dried clumps of grass and hidden nests and burrows. And there are the seeds, still in their capsules or already scattered and awaiting the right moment to germinate. Their intricate engineering and variety, and the many strategies that plants use to nurture and then disperse them at the right time, is another beauty to explore.
We learn all about this in school botany, but it’s a different and far more pleasurable lesson to be able to watch it in operation in your garden across the seasons.