Bringing Back the Wild

​There’s a new(ish) trend in landscape design.  It is known as Rewilding or creating Naturalistic Landscapes which mimic Mother Nature and appear, to the viewer, as random plantings. 

​But, in fact, these landscapes are far from random.  They are complex, integrated groupings of plants which are designed to grow into communities which support each other as they mature.   
 
The movement toward wilder landscapes began in the early 2000’s with Dutch designer Piet Oudolf (Planting the Natural Garden, 2003) and Roy Diblik (The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden, 2008).  Both men are renowned landscape designers and authors. Their publications were followed by Rick Darke and Doug Tallalmy’s The Living Landscape (2014) and Thomas Rainer and Claudia West’s Planting in a Post-Wild World (2015).
 
Now, fueled by the awareness of climate change, this “Back to Nature” style of designing is finally being embraced by the public. The Lurie Garden in Chicago is a lovely example of rewilding.  The High Line Garden in New York City is another successful landscape which has become a wildly (pun intended) popular public favorite. 
 
Not only is rewilding a lovely, loose, casual style of landscape design, but this type of landscape requires about 40% less maintenance and 70% less water than the typical landscape.  So, if you can loosen your grip on the manicured lawn and the trimmed hedge, this is a win-win.  A win for the homeowner and a win for the climate.