PROVIDING A RICH HABITAT
Garden designer Jennie Herrington is passionate about naturalistic planting and the way it brings benefits to wildlife. Here, she extols its virtues
MAXIMISE WILDLIFE IN GARDENS by keeping things as ’natural’ as possible. Using naturalistic planting is a perfect way to increase habitats and food for insects, bees, birds and small mammals. These habitats can be rich in diversity, beautiful and easy to look after.
WILD FLOWER MEADOWS, even in quite small gardens, are an instantaneous way to deliver a rich and diverse habitat and a scheme of wild flowers, bulbs and grasses is easy to look after. I like to include herbaceous perennials, grasses and useful shrubs, densely planted to reduce weed growth and using larger groups of the same plant for good impact and easy care. These schemes can often look good well into the winter months and possibly out the other side depending on your aesthetic preferences.
COMBINED WITH HARD LANDSCAPING and a more contemporary garden style, a naturalistic planting palette works really well, particularly when large bold geometry is used. The planting softens the hard edges of materials and adds movement to a scheme. You can plan both wild flower meadow and perennial planting beds right next to formal spaces and hard landscaping, or if you prefer to keep them separate, mow a strip of grass between the meadow and the start of the formal area, or include a low hedge – cloud-pruned hedges make a stylish break between informal and formal areas.
DIVERSITY IS KEY TO THE NATURALISTIC STYLE so include plants that stand through the winter as they offer protection and habitat for small mammals, as well as catching the frost, which looks lovely in low light. There are so many to choose from, but some of my favourites to include are Calamagrostis x acutiflora ‘Karl Foerster’ – an upright grass that goes a wonderful buff colour in autumn; Verbena bonariensis and Salvia nemorosa ‘Caradonna’, which are great for bees, butterflies and hoverflies; red clover in a lawn, which looks amazing in flower en masse, and dandelions – don’t dig them up, leave them to proliferate.