Planting: A New Perspective
Piet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury · Timber Press, 2013
The theory behind the naturalistic planting style you've seen at the High Line and the Lurie Garden — plus a genuinely useful directory of how 200-plus perennials actually behave.
It looks like one and is priced like one. It will not tell you how to prepare a bed, when to plant, or how to maintain what you've made. It's a design-theory book with an excellent reference appendix. Buy it to understand why Oudolf's plantings work; don't buy it expecting instructions.
What's actually in it
- An extended discussion of plant ecology and plant behaviour — how species perform in different situations, what happens below ground, how long things live, and which plants make good neighbours.
- A design framework categorising plants functionally as "primary", "matrix" and "scatter", with structural plants recommended at roughly 70% of a scheme.
- Planting plans demonstrating the layered look for year-round interest, plus extensive plant charts.
- A directory of 200+ perennials giving life expectancy, spread, seedhead persistence and propensity to self-seed — this is the reference-grade part and the reason to own it.
- Profiles of other naturalistic-planting practitioners, and photography of Oudolf's projects.
What it actually says
Specifics from inside the book — so you can judge whether it's telling you anything you don't already know.
- The framework: plants are sorted as "primary", "matrix" or "scatter". Matrix plants are the filler — low mounds like hardy geranium or Carex pennsylvanica. Primary and scatter together form the structure; wild indigo (Baptisia australis) is given as a scatter plant.
- The number the whole method turns on: structure plants should be about 70% of a planting, and to qualify a plant must hold visual interest from something other than colour, from summer into autumn at least.
- The directory treats lifespan as a design input — more than 200 perennials recorded for life expectancy, spread, seedhead persistence and tendency to self-seed. It also gives a predictor: fibrous root systems tend to indicate a shorter-lived plant.
- The stated position on spacing: plant densely so things interweave into an organic whole, producing plantings that support themselves without staking and resist weeds. Interplanting is explicitly preferred to monocultural drifts or blocks.
Buy it if
You already know your perennials and want to understand how to compose them into something that works for twelve months, not six weeks.
Don't buy it if
Beginners, and anyone with a small urban garden or courtyard — the schemes assume real scale and read less convincingly at residential size.
Where it falls short
No soil preparation, no ground clearance, no establishment technique, no maintenance detail, nothing on trees or woody structure, no pests or diseases. Kingsbury's prose is repeatedly described as hard going. And the honest warning most reviewers make: "low maintenance" has been misleadingly attached to this style. These plantings need ongoing monitoring, editing, deadheading, cutting back, thinning and replanting.
Who wrote it
Piet Oudolf is the designer behind the High Line and Battery Park in New York, the Lurie Garden in Chicago and Potters Fields in London — thirty-plus years at the front of naturalistic planting. Noel Kingsbury holds a PhD from Sheffield's Department of Landscape on the long-term performance of ornamental perennials, which is precisely this book's subject; he writes for the Telegraph, Gardens Illustrated and the RHS's The Garden. Be clear what it is: a book about Oudolf's method, co-written by Oudolf. The plant-longevity data is research-backed; the design percentages are professional judgement.
Where it was written
A US publisher, so hardiness references default to USDA zones — but a Dutch author, a British co-author and an overwhelmingly European plant palette. One of the least US-centric Timber Press titles you can buy. The real UK caveat is climatic: grasses that hold their winter structure in dry cold can become visual liabilities in a wet grey British winter.
The facts
- AuthorPiet Oudolf & Noel Kingsbury
- PublisherTimber Press
- Published2013
- FormatHardback, 280 pages
- ISBN-13
9781604693706 - LevelIntermediate to advanced
Checked against publisher listings, UK retailers and library records in August 2026. If any of this is wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
Where to get it
Buying secondhand? Match the ISBN above — several books on this shelf have editions that look identical but aren't.