Pattern and repetition

Nestled in a small valley, down a winding unmade road in Woodend, Victoria, Michael McCoy experiments with planting combinations in the only garden he feels comfortable investing this level of unique expression and garden experimentation – his own.

A plantsman, Michael McCoy studied botany before realising that his passion for plants could only ever be fulfilled by physical engagement in gardens. After an apprenticeship learning from some of the best gardeners in the world, Michael’s knowledge, experience and love of plants and their associations has since seen him carve out an impressive career in print, television and design.

A shift in gardening

After decades engaged in a world of gardens, plants and design, Michael admits there has never been a more exciting time for gardening than now.

“There has been a real shift away from staged presentation. We are no longer observers, but participants immersed in the planting,” says Michael. “The new perennial movement (which incidentally has been 50 years in the making) no longer relies on old knowledge and ideas, but rather an innovative and exciting approach to planting design championed by Dutch master gardener Piet Oudolf.”

This shift has not only seen a change in the way we use plants in our gardens but also an enormous change in what was the accepted plant palette, which is opening up a whole new world of planting possibilities, combinations and garden aesthetics.

“In the past, only the most glamorous plants would be incorporated into a design, but now the glamour factor is less critical. It is more about designed plant communities and the association of different plants, rather than pure cultivated aesthetic,” says Michael. “We have removed the ‘human’ focus and are more directed towards a cultivated replication of something natural. We are now part of the landscape and planting, which has resurrected the value of the term ‘to garden’.”

Experimentation at home

Drawing on his own vast knowledge and experience, Michael enjoys experimenting with designed plant communities in his garden in the ranges north of Melbourne. Exploring the rich aesthetic of dry gardening, the steppe, a terraced area in Michael’s garden that receives no irrigation and endures monthly frosts, showcases seasonal beauty via an unusual combination of low-mounding perennials and bulbs, using strong repeated vertical focal points to bring continuity and rhythm to the landscape. “The challenge is to embrace the climate and ambient conditions, then showcase the most suitable plants to perfection,” says Michael.

A seasonal matrix of mounding evergreens and perennials, utilising various euphorbias combined with lavender, Stipa and Verbena, create the framework for the planting, while Californian poppies and bulbs such as Triteleia, species tulips, Colchicum, Allium and bearded iris add to the procession of colour and seasonal spectacle.

Bulbs are equally important to the overall garden aesthetic as evergreen perennials, even though each has only a short peak period. Michael demonstrates that bulbs don’t need to be staged in a separate part of the garden, but rather integrated throughout. He plants them where their seasonality shines through to create a garden event among the plants that support them. This interaction of different plant forms and types is what’s so exciting about this new approach to gardening.

Michael adds that pattern and repetition are pivotal to the success of the planting, and that the garden does require a certain degree of order to cover and offset the disorder that arises through seed dispersal and plant spread.

“Gardening is now all about the planting, and the possibilities are endless.”

Written by Marcelle Swanson, Diggers horticultural editor, sustainable farmer and author.