Nigel Dunnett’s gardens and landscapes have lifted the spirits of city dwellers for decades. They are beautiful, uplifting places that resonate with the energy of the natural world and stop us in our tracks. But how does he achieve these plantings with their successional waves of colorful perennials, elegant grasses, and pollinators at work with so few demands on irrigation and other natural resources? In this book he shares his inspiration, philosophy and working methods. He puts his own particular style of naturalistic planting in historical context, teaches us how to read wild plant communities and understand how they behave in garden situations. Finally he shares his plant selection, which includes trees and shrubs as well as perennial and annual meadow plants, and implementation techniques in a neat planting design toolkit.

Nigel Dunnett’s beautiful, biodiverse landscapes and gardens have thrilled an international audience for decades. His woodland garden at Trentham Park in Yorkshire and in London his waterwise planting at the Barbican Centre and meadow planting at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park take naturalistic planting to a new level. His award-winning show gardens for Chelsea and Hampton Court flower shows that include green roofs, rainwater harvesting and ecological planting have received great acclaim. Nigel is ambassador of the Royal Horticultural Society campaign "Greening Grey Britain"and Professor of Planting Design and Vegetative Ecology at Sheffield University.