“From the moment I started with plants, I felt it had something deeper than what you saw. It was not just about the flower. It had a special appeal--that there’s something we love about plants because we are part of nature.”

On this episode, Dutch garden designer Piet Oudolf joins the podcast. He and Daniel talk about the fundamentals of gardening itself and its enormous appeal— even more so these days in times of COVID. What is it about the act of putting seeds into the earth, tending to them, and gaining aesthetic beauty from them as they grow into plants? Where does this impulse come from? What happens to gardens in winter?  One of the most interesting points of the discussion focuses around place and cultures.. How does a garden designer from rural Holland go about approaching gardens in Michigan, England, or New York?

Piet Oudolf is one of the most influential garden designers in the world. He is a leading figure of the "New Perennial" movement — his designs and plant compositions using bold drifts of herbaceous perennials and grasses which are chosen at least as much for their structure as for their flower color. Working primarily with perennial plant varieties, Oudolf practices a naturalistic approach to gardening. Taking a cue from architectural design, Oudolf prioritizes the seasonal life cycle of a plant over decorative considerations like flower or colour. He focuses primarily on structural characteristics, such as leaf or seed pod shape, present before and after a plant has flowered. He has designed some of the most important public gardens in the world, including the landscape for the Venice Biennale, RHS Wisley, Millennium Park Chicago, and the High Line New York City.

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