When I plant a tree, I have an expectation of what it will be next year and in five years' time. If I go out into the garden, I will see something today that was not in flower yesterday. PO: For me, it’s all about the moment, the now. W*: Is the anticipation part of the joy of gardening? What are you looking forward to?
Other than that, I work in the office surrounded by the garden. Because I’ve worked so hard in gardens for many years, it feels good to me that I’m not doing the actual work anymore! Our garden is so established that it needs no more than two days a week of maintenance. We have three acres of garden here which is taken care of by someone. So, it sort of feels natural but I can’t travel to other countries due to the restrictions. My life is already sort of isolated from living on a farm. (Image credit: Awoiska van der Molen) Wallpaper*: How are you doing currently, at home in Hummelo? Speaking from home – an old farmhouse on an acre of land outside the village of Hummelo, in the eastern Netherlands, where he has lived with his wife Anja since 1982 – Oudolf shares his thoughts on how to transform a miniature plot, work for Vitra’s HQ (completed since our interview), and our future reliance on finding pleasure closer to home – and ultimately, in our gardens. Believing in plants as therapy, he completed the garden for Maggie’s Centre at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, which opened in 2019. He has designed gardens for Serpentine Galleries in London and Noma in Copenhagen, filled Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset garden with 57,000 plants, and created a private, perennial-packed rooftop in Manhattan. Rating the ‘architecture’ of a plant just as highly as its colourful bloom, his complex plantings are layered with a multitude of species – evoking a sense of spontaneity, although nothing is ever left to chance. His ability to create transportive private gardens extends into our bustling cities and his work can be enjoyed in many urban public spaces. Step into one of Piet Oudolf’s gardens and you will be transported into a dreamlike meadowscape. On the occasion of the exhibition, we showcase the new photographs and revisit a Wallpaper* interview with Oudolf from May 2020, when much of the world was in lockdown.
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