Garden’s Illustrated : Return of the Native
By Noel Kingsbury
Gently rolling hills, woodland, fields and red-painted barns - this is the green and fertile land of southern Wisconsin, in America's Midwest. Once it was a land of small dairy farms, but many of the farmers have now sold up, abandoning their barns and sheds to the elements. Recognizing the value and possibilities of a vernacular architecture that we now see as romantic rather than severely functional, a trio of friends bought one of these old farms in 1991 and brought it gently into the modern world.
Northwind Perennials Farm is both a business and, to use the jargon of the tourism industry, a 'destination'. Most importantly, it has atmosphere, a subtle blend of interesting plants, natural materials and an amazing range of old and battered but much-loved objects, many salvaged from derelict farms in the surrounding countryside.
The three friends who still own Northwind -Steve Coster, Roy Diblik and Colleen Garrigan -have combined a passion for plants with a love of antiques to develop a distinctive combination of display garden and sales area. Colleen says: "No one thought we'd ever make it -a husband and wife team and a friend, Roy, who all lived together -but it has worked for us, because we've all kept our particular roles!'
Colleen runs the garden shop, selling antiques and garden art; she displays them around the garden and is responsible for all the styling at Northwind. Colleen's husband Steve runs a landscape design and installation business, using local plants and materials; he built all the stone walls and paths at Northwind. Their friend Roy is involved with garden installation too, but as a plantsman his main interest is in maintaining the nursery; his task is plant production, running a business that produces more than 300,000 plants a year, including many garden-worthy selections of native plants.
Nature versus nurture
American gardeners are in the midst of a sometimes acrimonious argument about native plants. More and more gardeners are planting species that originate in North America, which -given the incredible diversity and beauty of the flora -is something to applaud. Some go so far as to argue that only natives should be grown. They believe that non-native plants have no value for wildlife, and that many are invasive and will eventually overwhelm tracts of native flora. Many of those who are concerned about alien species have become involved in the growing campaign to restore prairie habitats.
More pragmatic gardeners object to the hardliners, though: on every trip I make to the USA, I hear mutterings about "nativeNazis" from those who proclaim their right to grow traditional garden plants. Roy sums up the debate: "A lot of the people who advocate the use of native plants don't understand gardening, and the gardeners aren't interested in native plants!' Roy himself shrewdly takes the middle ground. "I have always been interested in using native plants in the garden," he says, "but I like to mix natives and non-natives."
Some native plants can be unruly in the garden. But Roy himself has undertaken some of the selection work essential for turning native wildflowers into well-behaved garden plants. "I look for various growth habits in ,Plants that vary from the normal form;' says Roy. "One important characteristic is that plants respect their space:'
Among his plant selections are the switch grass Panicum avirgatum 'Northwind' and the prairie dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis 'Tara', which Roy found at Kettle Moraine State Forest in 1995. "Natives are, of course, good performers in the local climate;' says Roy, "and there is still so much to be introduced into gardens and evaluated:' Take for example eastern beebalm (Monarda bradburyana), a North American species good for dry soil, to which Roy was introduce, ironically, by Cassian Schmidt, the director of Hermannshof garden in Germany.
According to Roy, many native plants are useful in designing landscapes, especially woodland sedges. These elegant plants were a major part of Roy's planting scheme in the Boeing Galleries, an outdoor art venue in Chicago's Millennium Park. Roy also grew more than 15,000 plants for the Lurie Garden in the park, collaborating as with respected Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf. "Working with Piet was one of the best jobs of my life;' he says. "It was exciting for me and for all the wonderful native plants that the horticultural industry in our area has ignored."
Treasure trove
Plants are only part of the story at Northwind, as they grow among Steve's hard landscaping and Colleen's decor. "In our early days we used to go round abandoned farms rescuing stuff that people had thrown away;' says Colleen. "Now it is mostly yard sales where we find treasures:' Steve for example, has used stone pavers sold by farmers modernizing their properties to make the paths and patio areas Northwind. Old farm buildings are a passion for Colleen, particularly outhouses -and word has even got around. "People turn up with an old outhouse in the back of a pickup, wanting $100 for it;' says Roy.
"What I love doing;' says Colleen, "is creating vignettes with things others have discarded or think have no value, and breathing life into them.' Many of these things are for sale. "When people see what we've done here, they often feel inspired to do the same thing themselves. The use of old objects goes through fashions like anything else -people have been interested in cast iron for some time now, but now it's 1940s and 1950s things like old garden gnomes.”
Much of the success of Northwind is based on the synergy of combining plants and objects. "Steve and Roy set the rooms up;' explains Colleen, referring to the way that Steve's hardscaping and Roy's planting creates certain boundaries which gives her a structure to work with and place found objects. But during the winter when plant life is at a low ebb, it is often the inanimate objects that bring structure and visual stimulation to the scene. While on one level Northwind is evoking a disappearing rural past, on the other it is looking firmly to the future, in particular to a growing interest in using good cultivars of native plants in Midwestern gardens. Some of these are already finding their way over to European garden
