Sounds pretty fancy, huh? I read it in a book about “Garden Design”…apparently it’s popular enough to have an entire shelf in the library. The one I picked up was The New Native Garden – Designing with Australian Plants by Paul Urquhart. Sounded promising and had plenty of nice glossy photos of pretty flowers and those hand-drawn looking plans of gardens: all very appealing to the eye; and then I started reading the words and things went a bit down hill.
You see, Mr. Urquhart offers many different designs to consider and when I was reading the “Naturalistic” one I found myself thinking “Hang on this sounds familiar!”
Reverence of Nature
Apparently, the Naturalistic design ethic “…is always characterised by its reverence for nature. Followers often talk of their stewardship of the earth and this ethic is a strong motivating factor.”
Right on, Paul, sounds a bit like a religion though? However, I agree. Anyone else for a spot of Nature Worship? Bring your own sandals.
A Homage to Nature
Mr. Urquhart goes on…”Unlike the formal garden, the naturalistic garden is not established to dazzle, impress or overwhelm visitors with the owner’s wealth, power or control over nature. Instead, it pays homage to nature.”
Yup, although I’m definitely designing to impress, in the sense of: impress upon visitors the importance of natural gardens. (Not that we have any visitors, but the possibility exists.)
The Plants Rule
Further more…”The plants are the primary features of naturalistic gardens. Architectural elements are forsaken in favour of natural adornments like rock outcrops or old logs. Interest is added by creating contrasts with texture, form and foliage colour.”
How true, I even have a couple of old logs laying around…they’re almost a cliche it seems; might be time to remove them! The bit about foliage is spot on though; Western Australian plants have huge potential for contrasts.
No Exotics
Tragically, I parted company from Mr. Urquhart after that, it seems he’s in favour of preserving existing exotics in an established garden! Or, to be fair, at least thinking about preserving them:
“…you will need to make a choice – purist or blended. Do you aim to plant only Australian plants and eliminate exotics or do you want to blend your garden with the local environment and preserve some of the better exotic plants too?”
What! Next thing he’ll be harping on about how lovely a rose bed looks. OK, so I’m clearly a “purist”.
And then it all went horribly wrong, Mr. Urquhart appears to be something of a conformist:
“The bush garden is often plonked down amongst unsympathetic gardens where, far from appearing natural, it is the proverbial sore thumb in the suburban landscape. It becomes an oddity – out of place and out of step with the surroundings. This is a major reason why native gardens have acquired such low esteem with the general public.”
Sorry, that’s just bullshit in so many ways. First of all I can’t imagine any garden getting “plonked down”. “Lovingly laboured over” would be a better phrase. Secondly, surely the whole point of “naturalistic gardening” is to reintroduce the bush, not fall into some half-arsed middle ground of trying to fit in with the neighbours’ half-dead, water gobbling lawns, rose and invasive exotics collection. Thirdly, “an oddity” and a “proverbial sore-thumb”? According to whom? That is such a value judgement. And finally, “a major reason why…”…you got data to back that outrageous claim up, Mr. Urqhart? Both the “major reason” part and the assumption Australians hold native gardens in low esteem?
An equally skewed, but much less conformist description might be:
“The bush garden is often lovingly developed to create a harmonious and engaging reflection of the beauty of the Australian Bush. These gardens stand out as beacons of what a sustainable urban landscape could be: shady, water conserving, wildlife rich pockets of diversity that engage the mind, lift the soul and provide a haven from the frantic pace of modern urban life.”
If he’d written that I wouldn’t have snorted in derision and thrown the book across the room (sorry library, it was a gentle lob rather than a vitriolic hurl). I really must stop reading these “glossy” gardening books; they’re like candy floss: nice to look at, easy to consume and make me want to throw up.
Give me good old Wrigley and Fagg any day.
Mandurah Native Gardens 