Marc's Gardens

  The Not so New, ‘New’ Perennial Movement.   Piet Oudolf at the start of his fame The last ten years has seen an explosion of naturalistic plantings in our gardens. It feels like a decade of this style of gardening has gone by pretty quickly, and therefore it still seems (to some at least) quite a new and fashionable way to design gardens.   Of course, ‘there’s nothing new under an old sun’ as they say, and even though Piet Oudolf may be the person famed for much of what we see in gardens today, it’s worth remembering that even he had his influences: e,g. Karl Foerster - the German plantsman, nurseryman and writer, who (as far back as 1903) was combining a love of sturdy perennials with grasses to create a remarkably similar effect to what we see today. Piet cites Foerster as his main influence, as well as his personal idol.   Now, one could argue, that pushing aside the now somewhat-ageing perennial wave, there is in fact very little movement in modern garden design.

  I’ve always been a bit of a studious chap… bit of a life-long-learner. In fact, I cannot remember a time when I wasn’t studying something or other. Everything from car maintenance at the local adult education centre to English Literature at Birkbeck College. Over the years there’s been courses in geology, Information Technology and art history…. To say nothing of my recent acquisitions: qualifying as a teacher, a Humanistic counsellor, and of course numerous horticultural qualifications. Of course, my current just-for-fun ‘thing’ is beginners French. J'aime apprendre! Now that I’m self-employed, and somewhat out of that loop which provides a certain level of enforced discipline (a ‘proper’ job that is!) I feel very fortunate to being doing something everyday   that I really enjoy. As my Blogger profile states, I really do ‘enjoy getting my hands dirty everyday’, positively influencing and enhancing the gardens I work in. That is why, outside the hours of my day-to-day