I have to tell you about Piet Oudolf, in case you have never come across his work.

He is a Dutch garden designer who has perfected the art of prairie planting and I have, over recent years, come to enjoy and appreciate his schemes more and more.

In late summer, I was invited to the RHS garden at Wisley, Surrey, for an evening reception at the new and very impressive Millennium Glasshouse.

Surprisingly, the sun was shining, sitting low in the sky and casting a warm light onto the land.

Running from the glasshouse up to a viewing mound are two enormous borders some 20-30ft deep and many yards long, designed and planted by Piet Oudolf.

Not only are these borders spectacular in evening sun, but they looked just as good when I returned a couple of days later, sadly without the sunshine, to photograph them.

So, what makes these borders so sublime? Especially at a time of year when most of us have run out of colour in our gardens.

The thing is, Piet does not use the perennials you see in most herbaceous borders. He does not believe in staking lush delphiniums or dahlias.

He uses simple flowers - daisies in every shape and colour and thistle-type plants, soapwort and salvias in among huge veils of translucent grasses, the sort of plants you would find in a meadow.

He has copied nature and does not always put the tallest at the back of the border, or keep clumps of plants in separate places. Plants intermingle and some are even allowed to self seed.

He chooses plants that will not fight with each other for space, but which can live together in a natural harmony.

However, the planting is not by any means haphazard, but is carefully thought out and controlled. There are features such as the diagonal buttresses of tall yellow Helenium that are repeated down the borders giving a rhythm to the scheme, and the large drifts of sky blue Agastache Black Adder' along the front.

Cotinus is one of several types of shrub that forms the backdrop to the borders, just beginning to take on their autumn tints in late August. Most of the perennials are late flowering so they can be enjoyed when the grasses are at their best too.

Plants that have performed earlier in the season (and believe me, there is plenty to see throughout the summer) are allowed to go over and their structural seed heads remain. Alliums, Veronicastrums and Phlomis had all had their moments but still added interesting shapes to the borders.

You may not have room to copy these borders in their entirety but there are some wonderful combinations of colour, shape and form to inspire you for even a small corner of your garden.

Take, for example, the pink Echinacea pallida with the spiky silver Eryngium yuccifolia, or the tall yellow Rudbeckia maxima with its big brown snouts' poking up through blue Perovskia and the fairy-like flowers of Gaura lindheimeri.

Another lovely group of colours that struck me was some dirty-pink clumps of Eupatorium Purple Bush' with the deep plum foliage of a cotinus behind and a haze of Molinia caerulea Karl Foerster' nearby. And colour is not the only feature because the whole scheme moves constantly in even the slightest breeze, adding yet another dimension to the enjoyment of these remarkable borders.

Other plants of note in the borders were a very lovely Phlox paniculata Blue Evening', a bright pink and late flowering hardy Geranium soboliferum, the spidery Tradescantia Concord Grape', Echinops with its blue globe-shaped flowers, and a wonderful grass with feathery bottle-brush heads called Calamagrostis brachytricha - a real wow' for any border!

While the Glasshouse borders at Wisley have not been in place all that long, Piet has been working for many years in Europe and indeed in this country.

Bury Court at Bentley near Alton is a walled garden laid out and planted by Oudolf some years back.

The pale cream stone walls of the buildings are a lovely backdrop to brilliant red Persicaria and the warm gold of late summer grasses and cobalt blue phlox.

Sadly, this garden is no longer open to the public, unless of course you would like to hold a wedding or event at Bury Court (and I can't think of a nicer venue, personally!).

However, hugely influenced by the Oudolf planting at Bury Court, Sarah Taylor has created a wonderful garden at The Coachhouse, South Warnborough, that is usually open for a day or two through the National Gardens Scheme (Yellow Book) so put a note in your diaries to check out the opening dates for next year.

There is another new garden by Piet Oudolf that is worth a visit but, unlike Wisley, is not exactly on our doorsteps here in Hampshire.

Scampston Hall near Scarborough, North Yorkshire is a wonderful garden, again created within the structure of a walled garden.

Parts of the planting are very simple - there is an entire room' that is a collection of 6,500 Molinia grass plants, and the Perennial Meadow' is an informal parterre of vibrant colours and delicate grasses.

What I really like about Piet's schemes is that in all the gardens I have mentioned, the plantings are contained within relatively formal spaces, and yet the plants themselves could not look more natural and soft.

There are vibrant colours, cheek by jowl, and yet the neutrality of the grasses among them stops anything from clashing.

Best of all, there are finches eating the grass seeds, bees buzzing everywhere and clouds of butterflies among the flowers. Surely that is a recommendation in itself for creating your own Piet Oudolf borders in your garden.

Veronica Mackinnon is a garden designer and writer.

Call 01962 760346 or visit www.schooldaysinthegarden.com

3:32pm Monday 22nd October 2007

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