Rhythm, repetition and natural cycles

Gardens are a dynamic art form and, like all art movements, they are subject to the influence of other movements that wax and wane. The naturalistic movement is no different. It borrows heavily from the English garden style, although not from the rigidity, straight lines and bedding plants of the early Victorian era (the late 1830s and 1840s).

It’s much more simpatico with the painterly effect used by British garden design pioneer Gertrude Jekyll (1843–1932), whose 1903 book Colour Schemes for the Flower Garden is still widely available. Jekyll’s approach balanced formal and informal design, and her use of controlled colour palettes in the garden was one of her signatures. Even when she designed formal layouts, her painting style was relaxed.

Jekyll in turn was heavily influenced by William Robinson (1838–1935), the Irish gardener and author whom some garden historians consider to be the father of the naturalistic style. Robinson’s 1870 book The Wild Garden, like Jekyll’s Colour Schemes, is readily available today.

Both Jekyll and Robinson combined hardy shrubs, bulbs and perennials in deep borders to create naturalistic-looking, long lasting displays using plants in groups of three or more, repeated to create rhythm and a sense of balance and flow. For their woodland gardens they chose plants that would naturalise and blend into the outer landscape, to emulate nature.

The naturalistic style of garden relies on choosing plants that have strong and contrasting forms and structures throughout the seasons and even in decay – it means planning for many different scenes through a growing year.

Flower colour and timing are less important because naturalistic gardening is not about growing plants that will bloom all at once and culminate in a single showy display. Rather, it’s about layering different plants that have their seasons of interest in succession, just as nature does – there is always something happening and something coming next.

Perennial plants contribute the most to this effect. As in other well-planned gardens, trees, shrubs, bulbs and annuals all have their place, but perennials give the greatest effect the fastest. Dynamic and ever-changing, they go through a full life cycle in one year and contribute special effects even as they die and decay – beautiful structural seed heads become food for birds, dead stems provide nesting material, and the rest is organic matter that contributes to soil life. The plants return to life the next season and the cycle begins again.