Gardens
Banish the old attitudes
Ursula Buchan
If you go to Chelsea Flower Show next week, you will see 'gardens' representing every style from Mogul to Moroccan, from Provençal to Cotswold, not to mention gar- dens for children, the elderly, the scented and the just plain fanciful. These show gar- dens will be monuments to the infinite capacity we British have for taking pains, especially over our hobbies. What you will not find are many examples of 'matrix' or `ecological' planting. Yet, if we gardeners (and not just Chelsea exhibitors) are not to buckle under the strain of gardening in ways which have become too onerous, then we should at least take notice of it.
`Matrix' planting is the term Peter Thompson (a garden writer and erstwhile nurseryman and Kew plant physiologist) uses to describe the system whereby plants are encouraged to grow into self-sustaining, almost labour-free garden communities. The approach is intended to mimic the way that plants grow together in nature, but is by no means restricted to British native wild flowers and trees. The idea is that plants, whatever their origin, should be grown where they naturally like to grow, in large groups which intermingle, so that ulti- mately there is no bare earth for rampa- geous 'weeds', such as nettles, to colonise. The aim is to reproduce the same elements of 'order, predictability, persistence and stability' in garden communities as are found (usually) in nature. It means using more plants, but of far fewer varieties, and intervening only to remove the odd peren- nial weed or too dominant plant.
His idea has close affinities with German `ecological' planting (which has gained favour in this country in recent years and will be represented at Chelsea by a flower meadow in the Daily Telegraph's `Latin Garden') whereby hardy perennials are chosen for there suitability to the soil and situation, and their compatibility with each other, rather than for their colour relation- ships. Decorative grasses are often impor- tant elements, used to form a weed- smothering and unifying `matrix'.
In Thompson's version, however, trees and shrubs as well as hardy perennials, are employed. In fact, he believes that, in this country at least, the approach works best in woodland or semi-woodland situations, i.e. `shade' or 'partial shade', rather than 'full sun'. This is because our winters are warmer and summers cooler and wetter than those on mainland Europe, conditions which can favour the rapid growth of weedy, undesirable grass species here.
Done well, Thompson believes that `matrix' planting can be aesthetically pleas- ing, in a very informal way, but its function is equally to save labour. He is certain that we do far too much traditional gardening, particularly hoeing and digging, uncon- sciously harking back to an age when there was plenty of cheap labour, and artificiality was a virtue. Much of our inherited knowl- edge is, according to him, now worse than useless to us. Embracing `matrix' planting, with its emphasis on effective ground-cov- ering, putting plants in soil where they nat- urally thrive, and refusing to improve soil fertility just for the sake of it, undoubtedly promises a cushier life.
Thompson's views are wittily and thoughtfully offered in his latest book, The Self-Sustaining Garden, A Gardener's Guide to Matrix Planting (Batsford, £17.99 paper- back). It makes refreshing reading. It is cerebral rather than technical (you certain- ly don't have to be an expert to understand it) and the author has a charming tendency to overstate his case. Much of the meat of the book consists of a variety of fictional situations, concerning garden design `clients' who would not be out of place in a comedy of manners. Such detail provides readers with reassuring guidelines as to what plants to use in their own gardens. The only slight problem is the word `matrix' itself, with its heart-sinking echo of A-level maths.
But there is a 'but'. 'Matrix' planting' may work in the Shropshire woodland gar- den belonging to a professional plant physi- ologist, who has few dogging preconceptions but an extensive knowledge of plants, their ways, background, compati- bilities and shortcomings. Without a lot of guidance, most of us are just not good enough gardeners to succeed with it. And it will never work if we cling to our old atti- tudes. We must banish the notion that a garden must contain as many different plant varieties as we can possibly find, set in discrete groups in orderly, rectilinear borders. And we must learn not to ask 'how tall does this plant grow?' or 'when does it flower?' but 'what is its habit and personal- ity, and in what circumstances does it grow in the wild?' Mmmm.
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