Prairie planting

Inspired by the sweeping expanses of grasslands in the American Midwest, a prairie planting is created using grasses and brightly-coloured late summer flowering perennials. The grasses provide structure and are interspersed with drifts of colour from the blooms of the perennials. The flowing groups of plants have a naturalistic feel and seem to be finding their own way as they would in the wild. Underpinning prairie planting is the philosophy that it’s sustainable and operates in harmony with nature.

Dutch designer Piet Oudolf is credited as the originator of prairie planting, also known as the New Perennial movement. Although his designs use large groups of plants and were originally conceived with wide open spaces in mind, it’s perfectly possible to recreate the effect in a small space by having a prairie border and limiting the number of different plants used. The trick is to plant in groups of three and then repeat so that there’s harmony and a feeling of connection throughout your scheme. Alternatively repeat the plants so that they wind through each other in streams rather than blocks.

A large trough can also be used to great effect; in this case it’s probably best to limit yourself to three, or at the most five, different plants and repeat them in the way that you would in a border or bed. You can even incorporate the style into existing planting by squeezing tall, narrow grasses and leggy perennials like Verbena bonariensis into the spaces between existing plants.

Most of us like something for all seasons in our gardens. Grasses will provide some winter interest and building in a few perennials that bloom earlier in the year and some with a long flowering season as well as plants with beautiful seedheads is the way to avoid too much of a seasonal gap.

A feast for the senses

A notable feature of the prairies (or indeed any field of maturing wheat or barley) is the gorgeous undulating waves of grasses as the breeze wafts through them. Mesmerising to watch and soothing for the soul, it’s accompanied by a gentle rustling as the seedheads brush together. This ‘green noise’ is also said to have a calming effect and help block out intrusive sounds which might invade the privacy of a garden.

Grasses are very tactile too. Run the soft bunnies’ tail seed heads of Pennisetum alopecuroides through your fingers and you’ll see what I mean. Silky yet bobbly Miscanthus sinensis, on the other hand, has a completely different feel.

Benefits to wildlife

A prairie planting is a great boost to wildlife. The cone-like flowers of echinacea, rudbeckia and helenium are excellent and easily accessible sources of pollen and nectar and will attract a multitude of bees, butterflies and other pollinators, as will the multi-floreted umbels of fennel and achillea. Pollinators need food all year and these flowers are at their peak when the blooms of many other plants are coming to an end.

The seedheads of grasses, coneflowers and phlomis also provide much-needed fodder for birds as winter rolls in and the tall, dense planting offers homes and shelter for insects, frogs, newts, voles and hedgehogs.

Providing the right conditions

If your garden, or an area within it, has full sun and well-drained soil then a prairie planting will fit in just perfectly. This doesn’t mean the soil has to be dry – indeed heleniums and rudbeckias like relatively moist conditions around their feet. But it shouldn’t be soggy in winter.  And if you do have dry soil, grasses and other perennials such as echinacea and Verbena bonariensis are fairly drought-tolerant after their first year, once established.

The plants

Prairies peak in late summer and autumn so you could either set aside an area of your garden to create an area of interest for this season or incorporate earlier flowering plants for year-round interest. Aim for a combination of different heights, textures and forms from the strong daisy like heads of rudbeckia to the flatter, tiny-flowered heads of achillea, the globes of echinops, the spires of Perovskia atriplicifolia ‘Blue Spire’ (Russian sage) and strappy-leaved grasses with their soft, enticing seedheads.

Plants are placed close together so that the flowering perennials appear to grow through the forest of grasses. This also discourages weeds!

Late summer flowering perennials frequently used in prairie plantings include: echinacea, rudbeckia, helenium, fennel, Verbena bonariensis, Echinops ritro and kniphofia (red hot pokers).

For earlier flowers try bulbs like alliums and Anthriscus sylvestris (cow parsley).

Plants that will reward you with a long flowering period include Sanguisorba ‘Tanna’ (early to late summer), Phlomis russeliana (early summer to early autumn) and Oenothera lindheimerei (also known as Gaura lindheimerei ).

For seedheads try perennial scabious such as ‘Burgundy Blue’ or ‘Butterfly Bonnets’, Eryngium giganteum (Miss Wilmott’s Ghost) or Calamgarostis brachytricha (foxtail grass).

And for grasses with good autumn colour: tongue-twisting Anemanthele lessonia (formerly Stipa arundinacea) or Miscanthus sinensis ‘Kleine Silberspinne’.

You’ll find more plant ideas here: https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-design/prairie-planting-creation-maintenance

Where to see them

You’ll find the gardens of Piet Oudolf and similar designers worldwide and there are several wonderful examples in the UK too:

• Trentham Gardens in Staffordshire: https://trentham.co.uk/estate-gardens/about-trentham-gardens/

• The Millennium Garden at Pensthorpe, Norfolk: https://pensthorpe.com/things-to-do/gardens/millennium-garden/

• RHS Wisley in Surrey, where a new, redesigned border is currently being created: https://www.rhs.org.uk/gardens/wisley/articles/oudolf-landscape

Maintenance

Mulching with bark chips or gravel helps keep moisture in and weeds down but you’ll probably need to weed as well to keep on top of couch grass, dandelions and other unwelcome visitors that might make their way in.

Chopping back dead plant material is usually left until spring as so many prairie-style plants provide winter interest. If you haven’t already mulched, it can be left on the ground as a weed suppressant and fertiliser.

One of the joys of gardening is that it’s an opportunity for creativity. You might like a high proportion of grasses for a particularly ethereal, airy look. And you may opt for a limited and tasteful colour palette of burnished reds, oranges and yellows, or prefer a rainbow mix covering all colours in the spectrum. You can make the colours as bold or as muted as you like. Channel your inner artist and let your imagination roam free.

Looking for a particular plant? Why not use our online Plant Finder