Rick Darke's American Woodland Garden

In The American Woodland Garden: Capturing the Spirit of the Deciduous Forest, Darke introduced the idea of observing a natural area repeatedly in search of design inspiration. Darke's study of the Red Clay Creek in southeastern Pennsylvania is the basis for the book's chapter "Learning from a Woodland Stream". Five images from the chapter, taken from the same vantage point on a bridge looking upstream to the west, illustrate the dramatic changes in color, depth, architecture, and mood that take place within a typical year. Two trees arching over the creek provide a constant frame of reference. This early May photo shows the landscape warmly aglow as the late afternoon sun backlights the scene.

By early November the colors have changed from myriad greens to a rich palette of gold, fawn, and ruddy bronze, made even warmer by the setting sun.

Though we rarely think of designing gardens to celebrate inclement weather, this late December image illustrates the raw emotional power of storms. Coordinated design of house and garden can provide similar vantage points so that we can safely and comfortably witness the authentic drama of seasonal landscapes.

A coating of snow in January helps define the organic architecture of the landscape. The arching trees continue as visual references for marking the path of the setting sun as the seasons elide from winter solstice to vernal equinox.

Now in its third decade, Darke's continuing study reveals the subtle drama of ecological change over time. In this February scene taken ten years after the first four photos, the fallen tree that once bridged the Creek has been washed from the scene, and a new island has formed on the spot where it rested for a while. Good garden design welcomes seasonal dramas and embraces change as a healthy part of our gardens' essential processes.

The organic architecture of trees and shrubs frames a view in the Darke/Zoehrer garden to a sunlit meadow. Within the backlit grasses, a sculpture made from recycled copper sash windows from the original Longwood Gardens Conservatory provides a focal point.

The upright blue grass at left is Panicum amarum 'Dewey Blue'. Darke learned about this coastal switchgrass species while working with regional vegetation for the Enhancing Delaware Highways project. He collected seed of especially blue-leaved plants growing on the dunes near Dewey Beach, Delaware, and worked with friends at North Creek Nurseries to select and introduce an upright, drought and salt-tolerant cultivar that commemorates its place of origin.

Established as part of the Enhancing Delaware Highways Project, this richly textured meadow is located directly along the I-95 corridor in northern Delaware. Established primarily from seed and consisting of a mix of Indian-grass (Sorghastrum nutans), goldenrods, and thoroughworts (Eupatorium hyssopifolium and Eupatorium serotinum) it has thrived without any irrigation or fertilization for more than a decade.

Backlit by the afternoon autumn sun, wild oat (Chasmanthium latifolium) reliably greets visitors walking west on this entry path in the Darke/Zoehrer garden. The translucent qualities of grasses make them especially suited for garden designs that recognize the inherent drama in natural lighting effects.

The warm amber hues of local warm season grasses (Andropogon virginicus and Schizachyrium scoparium) cover great areas with minimal resources or maintenance in this Delaware meadow. Red cedars and a mix of deciduous trees and shrubs play against the grassy matrix. The increasing interest in grasses owes much to their ability to thrive with minimal care, often in the most challenging conditions.

Mossy paths are bordered by dynamic sweeps of Piedmont wildflowers at Mt. Cuba, in northern Delaware. Although this naturalistic garden is the result of careful design and management, naturalization of many of the garden's wildflowers, trees, and shrubs greatly reduces required maintenance.

This view to the West Garden at William Robinson's Gravetye Manor illustrates the practical, sensual result of bringing an authentic bit of wildness into designed landscapes.

Gardens inspired by William Robinson's ideas are often referred to as "Robinsonian". In North America, Winterthur, in northern Delaware, is perhaps the greatest, most historic Robinsonian garden. Winterthur's creator, Henry Francis du Pont owned a copy of The Wild Garden, and vast sweeps of ferns, local wildflowers, and bulbs he established at Winterthur are eloquent testimony to the enduring value of Robinson's concepts.

The porch view from this restored log cabin in western Pennsylvania looks out over a meadow consisting entirely of naturalized local wildflowers and grasses. The meadow is alive with birds and butterflies, and requires little maintenance beyond once-annual mowing and occasional spot removal of weedy interlopers.

Locally native great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) grows along a rocky stream garden at Mt. Cuba in northern Delaware. Growing conditions at this site are very similar to the lobelia's natural habitat, and the planting has become naturalized and largely self-perpetuating.

Wildness is the defining motif of the Nature Park Sudgelande in Berlin. The garden developed naturally from an abandoned railyard, and is rich with the spontaneous regrowth of grasses, trees and shrubs. Graffiti is permitted, and is a colorfully abstract presence in the midst of Sudgelande's freely evolving vegetation.

European white birches have self-sown over much of Sudgelande and their bright bark is the perfect complement to the remnant rails. The former trackways have been filled with permeable materials to create water-smart walks.

William Robinson 'recycled' Gravetye Manor, originally built in the 1590's, and made it his home and laboratory for developing his idea of wild gardening. Lush, naturalized plantings spill over Gravetye's local stone walks, providing the perfect textural companions to the Manor's sturdy timbers.

Typical of the North American wildscapes that inspired William Robinson, this high meadow in the Smoky Mountains is graced by locally native featherbells, (Stenanthium gramineum) in mid-summer.