Piet Oudolf on Designing a Winter Garden

How do you choose plants? You have to start with an idea about the garden. Put yourself in the context of the plants. Some people go for tall plants, as if to be in a space hidden and mysterious. Some people want to feel as if they are in a meadow. Make a list of plants you want to use. Don’t choose from pictures, but by flowering time, height, color and texture. Learn whether the plants are perennial or short-lived. That is the most essential thing. If you create a garden, you want to have it for a long period, not just for a season. Where are annuals appropriate? Basically, a garden should be more sustainable. You can use your annuals and biennials to fill gaps, but they shouldn’t take over the garden. When you work as a designer in a public environment, they don’t want you to put in plants that die the next year. When you have a private garden you have the joy of buying new plants. But don’t overdo. A garden does not need to be too decorative. Go for simple flowering plants instead of the double-flower varieties. If you buy the right plants, it looks good. If you buy the wrong plants, you have to redo it every year. Evergreens seem like an obvious choice for winter. How much do you depend on them? Evergreens add depth to the garden, or the scenery of the garden, but you don’t need too many. In winter you don’t expect a garden to be green. It’s about scale and balance. Evergreens have a place, but other things play a role, like texture and structure. The character of shrubs and trees shows most before and after summer and in the winter, when you really see the branches. That is sometimes more interesting to me than seeing an evergreen.