[ad_1]
Piet Oudolf designed a set of long-handled hand tools, a spade and a fork. They’re perfect for when you’re working on your knees, but need more leverage than the normal hand spade can provide. They’re especially good for digging and dividing grasses and more stout perennials. https://sneeboer.com/en-us/hand-forged-garden-tools/piet-oudolf-hand-spade
Go-to gardening outfit:
I usually wore cargo shorts and a long sleeved camp shirt, but that was in California. Wearing that on this coast, where I keep running into mosquitos and poison ivy, I’ve had to really reduce the skin exposure. And of course a holster for my left-handed Felco pruners and my soil knife.
Favorite nursery, plant shop, or seed company:
I love Hudson Valley Seeds. They’re currently growing a variety of eco-type native pollinator perennials sourced to the Hudson Valley. I think it’s important to plant those local natives when you can.
On your wishlist:
A garden of my own! I have a little roof space with my New York City rental apartment, where I grow some herbs and a couple of really resilient grasses and pollinator plants. It’s a brutal environment to be gardening on an asphalt roof on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Plus it’s six flights up, so I’ve really resisted my urge to add pots and plants. But it’s fascinating to see all the pollinators that show up even on a random roof in the middle of the city!
Not-to-be-missed public garden/park/botanical garden:
On the East Coast, I love Mt. Cuba Center in Delaware. It’s a former estate garden, but planted with all natives in a very thoughtfully designed way. They also do amazing research on various perennials in their extensive trial gardens. On the West Coast it’s Lotusland, another former estate garden in Montecito near Santa Barbara, CA. Just a crazy, fantastical mix of palms, succulents, cycads, and cactus arranged in the most impressive way.
The REAL reason you garden:
Because plants are the basis of all life on Earth, and I believe that creating and caring for gardens are, therefore, the highest form of art and interpretation that you can achieve. To create opportunities for human emotion and connection while supporting our endangered wildlife is the noblest of callings.
Anything else you’d like us to know? Future projects?
We’re renovating a garden on the High Line between 17th and 18th Streets that was impacted by nearby construction. Piet Oudolf designed a brand new planting scheme that will add 18 new plants to the High Line. We planted this in mid-November.
Thanks so much, Richard! (You can follow him on Instagram @naturegardener.)
For our full archive of Quick Takes, head here.
(Visited 913 times, 51 visits today)
[ad_2]