January in the Oudolf Garden
I have a confession. Despite being an avid gardener for a number of years now, and generally understanding the benefit of native plants, I've been kind of terrible at actually planting any. I'm mainly a vegetable grower. Over the past five years I've torn down two raised beds that were rotting away and replaced them with 5 new metal raised beds. Then the next year I added four more. And the year after that I added more again. I'm up to 12 now. Along with an unruly assortment of grow bags for all the seedlings I don't have the heart to toss on the compost pile and can't find homes for. Inside the clearly defined boundaries of the beds, I have a plan. Everything outside of them however mainly is chaos. I have never really cared much about my garden's aesthetics beyond having healthy looking vegetable plants. But after the first frost, all that stuff is gone. Peppers and tomatoes are from South America and basically melt after the first hard freeze, sometimes still with plenty of fruit on the vine because usually by that time of the year I've run out of freezer space or the energy to preserve what's left. My garden turns to mush.
And here's the other dirty secret: for a long time I had a hard time appreciating natives because honestly, they just aren't as flashy as the hot-blooded annuals that put out tons of showy color. I found annuals to be mostly a waste of effort, all that nurturing and the expense of buying something that won't make it to next year is just unsatisfying. Cosmos and zinnias eventually won me over just for their sheer production and color, and cheerfulness, and marigolds and nasturtium have some utility in a vegetable patch, but don't talk to me about impatiens or petunias, or, god forbid, begonias. Boring.
But like the peppers and tomatoes, one hard frost and they are goners. One thing that separates native plants from the common annuals is
winter interest.
Many of our Michigan native plants stand resolute through winter, providing structure, texture, and most importantly, offering their seeds to overwintering birds, as well as vital habitat to little creatures and insects who shelter in them. As someone who suffers a bit with Seasonal Affective Disorder once it starts getting dark at 6pm, I've realized that one thing that really helps me get through winter is finding excuses to get outside. So I gave myself an assignment of checking out the Oudolf Garden on Belle Isle over the winter to see what it can teach me about winter interest. Plus I figured if I could form an appreciations for a native garden in January, it would definitely help me appreciate it more in June.
For the uninitiated, the
Oudolf Garden is a 3-acre garden designed by the world renowned Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf. He is known for creating naturalistic gardens using native plants. The garden in total has over 250 different species of plants, and nearly 100k plants overall!
Being the procrastinator I am, I barely managed to get there before dusk this particular day, so these shots are definitely on the moodier side, but it kind of felt fitting for a garden in repose.
