Neil Lucas - Designing with Grasses

Designing with Grasses

NEIL LUCAS

For my Mum,
who couldnt stay to see this book published.

Frontispiece: When used with more solid structural planting such as trees and shrubs, grasses lightness of form and almost-constant movement perfectly complements the heaviness of the woody plants as seen here on a misty October morning at Knoll Gardens in Dorset, England.

All photographs by Neil Lucas unless otherwise indicated.

Copyright 2011 by Neil Lucas. All rights reserved.

Published in 2011 by Timber Press, Inc.

Printed in China.
Text designed by Susan Applegate

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Lucas, Neil, 1957
Designing with grasses Neil Lucas.1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-88192-983-6
1. Ornamental grasses. 2. GardensDesign. I. Title.
SB431.7.L83 2011
716dc22 2010028453

A catalogue record for this book is also available from the British Library.

THE PAST FEW DECADES have witnessed profound changes in the way we view our gardens, and in the ways we plant them, use them and maintain them. Our perennial affection for beauty is now matched with a growing desire for functionality. Gardens must be pretty and be purposeful. They should please our eyes, entertain us, take us places. They should also offer refuge and inspiration, and smartly practical spaces where we can simply live well. Above all, our gardens must do this with increased efficiency, using resources fairly and wisely and, whenever possible, giving something back by supporting the living communities that surround them. We want our gardens to work and we want them to require less work.

The astounding growth in the popularity of grasses during this same period is no coincidence. More than any other group in our vast garden palette, grasses can do more with less. The innate adaptability that has allowed grasses and their relatives, the sedges and rushes, to inhabit infinite niches around the globe makes them uniquely suited to the varied demands of modern gardens. Neil Lucas knows all of this firsthand, and he knows it well. In Designing with Grasses he has illustrated the ethos of a grassy style of gardening that is elegantly in sync with our time.

I originally met Neil through California plantsman Dave Fross, and was immediately impressed by his knowledge and delighted by his wit and generosity of spirit. Weve since made many trips together through grass-filled landscapes and gardens in his native England and in North America, and I never fail to learn something in Neils company. His refined eye is evident in his photographs: Neil can capture the grace and subtle midwinter drama of native moor grasses mingling with heathers in a Dorset meadow, or the joyful lilt of miscanthus plumes in his own Knoll Gardens in autumn.

Located near Wimborne in an enviably frosty bit of southern England, Knoll Gardens four acres have served as Neils proving grounds for myriad design and maintenance strategies and as the launch site of nine consecutive Chelsea Gold Medal-winning exhibits of grasses. Knoll is also home to Neils specialist nursery, which offers perhaps the most extensive selection of grasses in the U.K. The diversity of grasses that Neil has brought to Knoll has in turn enriched collections and displays in many private and public gardens including the Royal Horticultural Society Garden, Wisley.

Neil Lucas has a deep understanding of the breadth of possibilities for using grasses in landscapes, and has condensed all of his experience into a personal yet universally practical volume. His book is populated by rain gardens, roof gardens, gravel gardens, wetlands, meadows, urban centers and intimate home habitats. Throughout, the focus is on a proven palette of especially hardy plants, most of which are as well suited to North America as they are to the British Isles and northern Europe. For experienced gardeners as well as those who are just discovering grasses, Designing with Grasses offers a thoroughly modern perspective on the role of grasses in beautifully functional landscapes.

RICK DARKE
August 2010

I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN LUCKY, meeting people throughout my life who have been generous and willing to share their time, knowledge and friendship. If I were to thank all of these people adequately then this would be by far the most extensive part of the book.

However, special thanks must go to the team at Knoll Gardens, without whom neither the nursery nor the garden, nor indeed this book, would exist. To Ross Humphrey who runs the nursery and is my right-hand man for most things, and to Gary Fatt, Pat Humphrey, Pam Lel, Angela Mann, Luke Tanswell, Amanda Walker and Trevor Walker.

I wish to thank my mum and my stepdad, Janet and John Flude, who helped me to purchase Knoll in 1994, giving me the chance to fulfil my lifetime ambition of owning my own garden.

I am also grateful to Dave and Rainie Fross, whose enthusiasm, knowledge and long-term friendship continues to be a most special pleasure. And to Rick Darke and Melinda Zoehrer, for their generous help, friendship and advice on so many matters, I shall always remain truly grateful.

In the UK, I wish to thank David Jewell (whose passion for grasses equals my own), as well as Michelle Cleave and Tom Cope, Beth Chatto and David Ward, Jaimie Blake, John Coke, Chris Evans, Chris Greene, Jim Gardiner, Fergus Garrett, Ian Harris, Roy Lancaster, Caroline Legard, Ian LeGros, Anna Mumford, Keith Powrie, Becky Rochester and Cleve West. I wish to thank Erica Gordon-Mallin for her skilled editing, and Anne Crotty for her patient proofreading. Thanks are also due to Poul Petersen in Denmark.

In the United States, I am grateful to Ed and Lucie Snodgrass and to Jim Ault, Fred Ballerini, Sue Barton, Kurt Bluemel, Steve Castorani, Pat Cullina, Mike Curto, Melissa Fisher, Dale Hendricks, Casey Lyon, Bernard Trainor and Paul van Meter.

IMAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks to friend and photographer Dianna Jazwinski whose wonderful imagery graces many a page in this book. A warm thanks also to Rick Darke whose patience and willingness to share his great photographic knowledge helped enormously with my own rather limited abilities. My thanks also to Alexandre Bailhache, Rick Darke, Dave Fross, Ross Humphrey, Jason Liske, Ed Snodgrass and Amanda Walker for generously supplying images for use in the book.

I am also deeply indebted to many gardens both public and private, and to nurseries, reserves and institutions, for their help and advice with many of the images. Sincere thanks to The Beth Chatto Gardens, Chanticleer Garden, Chicago Botanic Garden, Longwood Gardens, Lurie Garden, North Creek Nurseries, Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, Royal Horticultural Society Gardens at Wisley and Hyde Hall, Scampston Hall and the Springs Preserve.

THE KNOLL GARDENS FOUNDATION My own journey is now inextricably bound up with my garden. To this end, and hopefully to the advantage of us both, I have been lucky enough to establish a charitable organization called the The Knoll Gardens Foundation, dedicated not just to the preservation of the gardens but to the continuation of everything that goes into making a successful gardento the ethos that drives it forward and to that essential spirit of relentlessly optimistic experimentation and learning, without which we achieve nothing.