City Gardening

The native plant garden at North Carolina Botanical Garden is the closest example I could find to demonstate Weaner's garden design philosophy which relies on plant communities to express the rich beauty of native landscapes.

6. Natural landscapes for the real world

Larry Weaner, a landscape architect based in Glenside, Pennsylviania, opened his talk on “Breaking the Rules” at the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh with a story about how Native Americans were this continent’s first ecologists. Among their sustainable practices was the deliberate division the carex plants growing in meadows so that what the natives took from the plants for weaving and other handicrafts never depleted the source. These First Peoples also burned leaves under oak trees to destroy acorn larvae that would otherwise mature to infest an important food source.

From these two stories, Weaner’s philosophy of natural landscape design unfolded through breathtaking photos of his company’s projects, including meadows and woodlands in country, suburban and city gardens. Based on the idea that plant design should follow the patterns of the landscape and seasonal plant cycles, Weaner uses plants that have adapted to the specific conditions of the site. Simply put, he plants wetlanders in marshy spots and prairie grasses in sunny locations with poor soils. It sounds logical, but how many garden designers are doing this? Not many, I think. And that’s because to be successful, it takes time – often more than five years – to see the results, and it takes the knowledge drawn from many disciplines – from ecology to architecture – to be successful. I hope Weaner is thinking of writing a book, I want to know more about how to create such beautifully natural landscapes.

Pitcher plants and nodding ladies tresses at North Carolina Botanical Garden

Meanwhile, maybe I’ll grow a mini-landscape using a community of plants in a large container – I’ve always loved pitcher plants, and on this trip I discovered Nodding Ladies’ Tresses, which like the same conditions as sarracenias. Hmmm, another project for next year…