If you’d like your landscape to look as if it were planted by Nature, then an informal Wild Garden is the theme for you. This naturalistic plant-driven approach to gardening was originally popularized by the 19th-century English gardener William Robinson, who turned away from the fussy Victorian flower gardens of his time and advocated, in his popular books, the use of plants that were in tune with the surrounding natural landscape. He suggested following Nature’s dictates and mixing desired plantings with exotic plants. He also advocated for swaths of bulbs planted in grass. His ecological sensibility and advice heralded the transformation of flower gardens into the sustainable gardens we strive for in the 21st century.
In 1870, Robinson published his revolutionary book, The Wild Garden. He encouraged gardeners to adapt Nature’s loose look and to respect plant form, color, and growing habits rather than imposing a rigid layout on the land. He followed that influential book with The English Flower Garden in 1883. In this book he promoted the study of the interaction of plants and how each one’s size and foliage worked with others. These two books presaged a more respectful understanding of the natural world and its workings, and they introduced the world to a new approach to garden design.
The aim of a Wild Garden is to nurture local biodiversity with native and introduced plants. You must be mindful of your site and know its light, soil, and climate, because plants in wild gardens are specific to the ecology. Plants are grouped together based on common habitat, such as woodland, droughty, prairie, or wetland. Scale does not matter—you can have a wild garden of perennials and grasses in an open expanse or in a window box.
William Robinson’s ideas on natural ecological design continue to resonate today. A newly designed edition of The Wild Garden has been created by expert and author Rick Darke. It illustrates the wild garden approach and explains why it is so relevant for today’s gardeners, designers, and landscape professionals.
The green-and-white blades of variegated Japanese iris (Iris ensata ‘Variegata’) are at home in the saturated soil near a rustic pond. Perfect for a moist wild garden, the vertical, striped leaves look good even without the lovely, drooping purple flowers that appear in early summer. Likes full sun or partial shade and grows 35 inches tall. Keep moist. Zones 4–9. You can see this at the Phillis Warden garden in Bedford Hills, New York, through the Open Days program of The Garden Conservancy.
In this partially shady wet site, I elaborated on the wildflower garden theme by intermingling fluffy native ostrich ferns (zones 3–7) with the dark green-leaved perennial bugbane (Actaea simplex), seen in front. Bugbane grows 3 to 4 feet tall and is hardy in zones 3–8. Along with those plants, I added annuals (red angel wing begonias and blue salvia) for a pop of color.
Informal stone and gravel steps are bordered by a wild-looking assortment of plants. This is in the dry Wild Garden at Wave Hill, a public garden in the Bronx, New York. The airy purple flowers of the tender perennial tall verbena (Verbena bonariensis) contrast with the wispy, wheat-colored Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima). Both plants are hardy in zones 7–10 and both like heat and full sun. They are grown as annuals in cooler areas.
The frilly, deep purple-red leaves of ‘Redbor’ kale (Brassica oleracea ‘Redbor’) add intense color and texture in the fall flower garden. ‘Redbor’ kale, with its almost completely red coloring from rib to leaf tip, is an excellent replacement for waning summer annuals. Its purple color contrasts brilliantly with the orange and yellow colors of autumn. The magenta, blue, and silver of the kale are compelling accents. ‘Redbor’ is an upright plant, growing at least 2 feet tall on strong stems, with tightly curled foliage. Full sun to part shade. Pair with asters, dusty miller, mums, ‘Profusion’ zinnias (as shown), or pansies. Zones 2–11.
Ornamental cabbage forms a tight rosette of magenta leaves in the center, creating a unique, cold-hardy “blossom” of sorts. Add these plants to a fall garden amidst pumpkins, grasses, and late-blooming flowers. The magenta color darkens in the cool days of fall. The most intense coloration occurs when night temperatures range between 35 and 45 degrees.
‘Osaka Red’ compact cabbage cultivar has an outer ring of semi-wavy purple leaves surrounding a vibrant magenta center. When planted together with other cabbage varieties in a rounded, ribbed planter such as this, the effect is stunning. Although they are not flowers, they certainly give that appearance in the cool days of fall.
Beautiful dark red leaves of ‘Red Choi’ bok choi (Brassica rapa var. chinensis ‘Red Choi’) look great along with dark pink pansies. Bok choy is best eaten when its leaves are young and have a mild flavor. Sow seeds from early spring through midsummer. In the southern United States, fall seeding is possible. Try the variety called ‘Rosie’ for its bright strawberry-red leaves.