Dynamics and biodiversity in the garden

Under the heading "Blütengarten der Zukunft" in the German magazine Garten Praxis the editor Jonas Reif has invited different garden personalities to share their views on the flourishing gardens of the future. The title is taken from Karl Foerster's famous book "Vom Blütengarten der Zukunft", ie future flower garden, which came out in 1917.

In the latest issue, released in February, I am contributing with an article translated into German. If you do not have access to Garten Praxis and prefer English I am here publishing the original text. Go ahead, enjoy!

A Poppy meadow - the opposite of a static planting

A good example of the strictly controlled, static garden is the classic perennial border.

Here the perennials are planted in blocks or patches and the idea is that they should remain in the spaces allotted to them, not to sneak off to their neighbors. The planting is then usually viewed from a mowed lawn.

Even if static plantings of course can be very beautiful, they always look unnatural and arranged. In nature, you rarely stand on a mowed lawn and look at the forest, the meadow or the beach. Instead you are an integral part of the habitat you visit. You're actively in the forest and can move freely among the trees and flowers and are not merely a passive observer.

And above all, here the plants are not growing in rows or squares, rigid blocks or distinct modules. On the meadow the perennials are developing without the gardener's constant restrictions. That kind of plantings I want to see more of in the future.

One of the ponds in the Woodland at Vargaslätten, Halland, Sweden

Although all plantings are arranged to some extent unless the plants have invaded the site on their own, the method of planting in well-defined blocks makes it also appears that it really is artificial. In the future I would like to see more ecological, dynamic gardens where succession is a desired concept, where the plants are allowed to self-seed and spread, where the leaves gnawed by insects is an aim in itself and where biodiversity is a priority.

The Prairie in Alnarp, Sweden

We can create sustainable plant communities, where the beauty is not only found in the individual plant and its color, shape and structure or the group of plants, but furthermore in the co-existence and competition between the plants and between plants and the fauna.

It is possible to make a wide range of different biotopes in parks and gardens as groves and woodlands, swamps and bogs, wet meadows and dry meadows, prairies, heaths and steppes.

These days, when more and more gardens are covered with slabs and other stone materials, it would be a great opportunity to introduce the well-drained, long blooming, low maintenance stone and gravel garden to a broader public. I'm very surprised that this garden trend has not already occurred, because the extreme dry habitat garden is very exquisite and extremely easy to maintain.

The Calcareous Slope, Sävsjö, Sweden

If we used limestone in the garden, both slabs, gravel and boulders, we could create a paradise for sun-loving plants and insects and still have room to walk and sit. It could be like the big Alvar of Öland in southern Sweden, where one can walk around among flowering herbs. The spring could start with thousands of flowering bulbs and then the garden blooms continuously until November.

Savanna turns into Woodland, The City Park of Laholm, Sweden

You can use any type of sand and gravel in a dry habitat garden, but with lime stone fewer unwanted species will thrive. Anyone who have ever seen a well composed flowering steppe-like planting will want to have one in their own garden. But the steppe as theme isn't only suitable for a family garden but even more for public spaces where it is important with low maintenance costs.

Despite the influences from Karl Foerster, Richard Hansen, Rosemarie Weisse and some others, all kind of habitat plantings still are rare in Germany and elsewhere. Let us change that! Start digging and create your flowering steppe already today!

The Calcareous Slope, Sävsjö, Sweden

Vom Blütengarten der Zukunft. Das neue Zeitalter des Gartens und das Geheimnis der veredelten winterfesten Dauerpflanzen.

A very dry setting

This dry habitat planting in Sävsjö was made in 1999 and extended in 2001. The mixture of gravels, sand and soil were put directly on an existing lawn. Only at the edges of the planting area the lawn was removed. Beside stable perennials we also used some short lived perennials and some true hoppers, biennials like the Verbascum bombiferum. Today 10 and 8 years later the planting still is okay. As this was meant to be a dynamic planting it of course looks very different nowadays compared to its early stages.

The planting is never irrigated, except from the first establishing year of course. If a plant species can't stand the conditions and die it will not be replaced. The hard world of dynamics rules!

Lychnis calcedonica, a short lived perennial has increased in number

The Alpine Thistle, Eryngium alpinum excist in some few specimen

Traffic Islands

Dry and colorful traffic island spot with Nepeta and Origanum

Let's stay in Sävsjö for a while. Not far from the calcareous slope we can find some rather interesting traffic islands. They were all planted in 1998 and are still in very good shape although they do look a bit different today.

The sunny shore theme with Crambe, Artemisia and Geranium

A steppe style planting embrace the parking area

Along the head street in the small little city we planted several small plots and close to parking places also some bigger plantings. At the sunny side of the street all plantings were created as dry sites with high amount of gravels and pebbles mixed into the soil. At the shady part instead woodland style plantings with Hosta, ferns and other shade perennials were choosen.

Good contrast makers here are Stachys, Origanum and Nepeta.

 

Hosta and variegated Aegopodium in the shade

The Calcareous Slope

We used 40 tons of limestone, both boulders and gravel, when we in 2005 created a calcareous slope in acidic Sävsjö in the middle of the county of Småland in southern Sweden. Until yesterday I had never visited this landscaping project during the peak flowering period in June and July. Six years have passed and nowadays most of the bare stones and gravel are covered by vegetation. Some planted species have gone completely extinct, while others have increased enormously in number. Most abandoned is the soft Hairy Melic (Melica ciliata).

All plants chosen for this limestone planting are true lime lovers and they all tolerate very high pH.This time of the year the slope is filled up mainly by the lovely Carthusian Pink (Dianthus carthusianorum), the free flowering Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa columbaria) and the colorful Broad leaved Thyme (Thymus pulegioides).  Other species that can be found in bloom in July are a rose form of Bloody Cranesbill (Geranium sanguineum), St Bernhard's Lily (Anthericum liliago) and Viper's Bugloss (Echium russicum).

Broad leaved Thyme (Thymus pulegioides)

Melica ciliata, commonly called Hairy Melic or Silky Spike Melic  

together with Carthusian Pink (Dianthus carthusianorum)

Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa columbaria) and the Viper's Bugloss (Echium russicum)

Carthusian Pink and Pincushion Flower

The single flower of  Carthusian Pink, Dianthus carthusianorum