‘plants are the mulch’ and other nature-based design wisdoms, with claudia west

Since the book “Planting in a Post-Wild World” came out in 2015, co-authored by Claudia West with Thomas Rainer, I’ve been gradually studying their ideas and starting to have some light bulbs go off, on how to be inspired to put plants together in the ways that nature does, in layered communities.

Claudia joined me on the July 17, 2017 edition of my public-radio show and podcast to about some of the practical, tactical aspects of plant community-inspired designs that we can apply to our own gardens. About how to look at your landscape and read its structure and define its archetype—what kind of place it wants to be, and how to identify and then turn up the volume on the key seasonal “moments” you may already have. And most of all: we talked about covering more soil with plants—not wood mulch! (Above, Physostegia and late yellow foliage of Amsonia.)

Read along as you listen to the July 17, 2107 program using the player below. You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

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Q. I’m so looking forward to your visit during my garden Open Day. I only wish I could not greet my visitors at the garden and come to your workshop myself [laughter].

A. I think we will have a lot of fun.

Q. I should start by saying congratulations on the new venture that you and Thomas Rainer and Melissa Rainer have recently begun called Phyto Studio. The banner on the