Evoking natural plant communities

At heart, naturalistic planting aims to create plant combinations that evoke plant communities found in nature - like those shown here. Borrowing elements from a natural environment - a looseness and wildness, a rhythm of plant repetition within a coherent tapestry of forms - the end result gives a sense of immersion in something greater than ourselves.

As well as looking good, it fits with the way people want to live today. Robust plants that are suited to their location and associate to form a ground-covering community require little intervention - weeding, watering, fertilising, pest control. And at the same time they create many niches for wildlife.

I have studied naturalistic planting under two of its leading exponents - Nigel Dunnett and Noel Kingsbury. It's an approach that recognises the environmental challenges facing us, in so far as it supports biodiversity, is not resource-intensive, and is resilient to changing climate conditions.