Piet Oudolf

 

Piet Oudolf

Piet Oudolf is a Dutch garden designer who is well-known for his naturalistic and architectural style of planting. As a 25 year old, working in his family’s restaurant, he became interested in plants and began gardening through a garden contractor. Oudolf and his wife, Anja, started their practice in 1976, before opening a nursery to grow rare perennials. They were motivated by a desire to experiment with plants in the hope that the knowledge and experience gained would improve their landscape designs. After 1986, Oudolf moved back into garden and planting design, which he has done since.

Oudolf's nursery transformed into his private garden

A lot of Piet Oudolf’s design philosophy centres around his interest in plants, and conveying it within the landscape, saying ‘I’m fascinated by the beauty of plants. They are the tools to express myself while designing landscape and gardens’. He aims to create gardens that look good all year and during all weather, designing with texture first, and then adding colour. He sees gardening less as decoration and more of a process, designing gardens to change over time and letting a lot of processes happen naturally i.e. not deadheading. He takes most of his inspiration from nature, saying ‘I do not want to copy it, but to recreate the emotion’.

Oudolf's design process

I really like Oudolf’s style, both aesthetically and philosophically - creating gardens that appear natural, even if they are not, is an interesting way of encouraging people to pause and reflect within their environment, and appreciate the landscape for what it is, as opposed to what is presented within traditional manicured gardens. I find his drift method of planting especially beautiful, using form, texture and colour to produce naturalistic landscapes, whilst creating areas of interest where desired. 

Private garden complete by Oudolf

References

Macalister-Smith, T. (2020) Piet Oudolf’s Advice on Garden Design and Creating Inspirational Outside Spaces. Available at: https://www.wallpaper.com/design/piet-oudolf-garden-design-interview (Accessed: 19 May 2021)

Piet Oudolf. (n.d.) References. Available at: https://oudolf.com/references (Accessed: 19 May 2021)

Piet Oudolf. (n.d.) Partnership. Available at: https://oudolf.com/partnership (Accessed: 19 May 2021)

The English Garden. (2015) Piet Oudolf at Home in the Garden. Available at: https://www.theenglishgarden.co.uk/top-picks/interviews/piet_oudolf_at_home_in_the_garden_1_3941963/ (Accessed: 19 May 2021)