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Hummelo: A Journey Through a Plantsman's Life
An intimate look at the personal garden of the Dutch landscape designer renowned for his plantings at the High Line in New York City, and Lurie Garden at Chicago’s Millennium Park. Hummelo―near the village of the same name in Gelderland in the eastern Netherlands―is visited by thousands of gardeners seeking inspiration each year. It is Piet Oudolf’s home, his personal garden laboratory, a former nursery run by his wife Anja, and the place where he first tested new designs and created the new varieties of perennials that are now widely available. A follow-up to Oudolf’s successful Landscapes in Landscapes―Hummelo tells the story of how the garden has evolved over the past three decades since Oudolf, Anja, and their two young sons moved onto the property, with its loamy sand and derelict, wood stove-heated farmhouse, in 1982. Text by noted garden author and longtime personal friend Noel Kingsbury places Hummelo in context within gardening history, from The Netherlands’ counterculture and nascent green movement of the 1960s, to prairie restoration in the American Midwest, and shows how its development has mirrored that of Oudolf’s own outstanding career and unique naturalistic aesthetic. Oudolf has long been at the forefront of the Dutch Wave and New Perennial Style movements in garden design, which have ecological considerations at their base. His work stresses a deep knowledge of plants, eschewing short-lived annuals in favor of perennials that can be appreciated for both structure and blooms in every season. He is credited for leading the way to today’s focus on sustainability in garden design. The book will appeal to readers who favor beautiful, biodiverse, and ever-changing seed heads, grasses, sedges, and winter silhouettes. They will be drawn into its pages by lush photography, often demonstrating how Oudolf views his own work, and providing rare glimpses into his daily life. Short essays highlight important techniques, including scatter plants and matrix planting, and introduce other famed landscape designers―Karl Foerster, Henk Gerritsen, Rob Leopold, Ernst Pagels, and Mien Ruys―to create a full panorama of the movement Oudolf now leads.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published April 28, 2015
14 people are currently reading
215 people want to read
About the author
Piet Oudolf
43 books52 followersWorld-famous landscape designer Piet Oudolf is principal of a small landscape design firm in Hummelo in the eastern part of The Netherlands. He has designed award-winning public and private gardens in Holland, Germany, Sweden, Britain, Ireland, Canada, and the U.S. "
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
December 27, 2015
When I met a friend for coffee recently I was reading this book when she arrived at the shop. She asked what I was reading and I showed her the cover — which she stared at blankly, the usual response of non-gardeners. Though the title page of the book includes the phrase, "A Journey Through a Plantsman's Life," you'd be hard-pressed to find a serious gardener these days who doesn't recognize the name of Piet Oudolf, the most famous gardener working in the world today, and his equally famous home garden, Hummelo, in the Netherlands.
I'm not really sure when I first heard of Oudolf but I know I bought my first Oudolf book, "Gardening with Grasses", co-authored with Michael King, in 1998. But it was my first visit to the Lurie Garden in Chicago (next two pictures below) that made me understand just how differently Oudolf was thinking and planting than the rest of us. If you've been to that garden or the High Line in NYC, among other of Oudolf's creations, you know what I mean.
Over the years there have been a number of books that showcased Oudolf's designs or told us how to create our own version of them. But it's only now that we finally have a book about Piet, a man who says, "only footballers have books written about them." Noel Kingsbury, who has collaborated on design, research and writing with Oudolf, co-authored this book as well.
"Oudolf Hummelo" is a joy to read on any level. It's intelligent, amusing, educational, well-designed and stuffed with images. I would say it is a very Dutch book. It's certainly an un-American garden book when you compare it to the steady stream of coffee table books that fill the shelves at bookstores. First of all this is a small scale book in the garden publishing world, given its famous subject. It's only 7" x 9 and 1/4" in size, though it's a hefty 1 and 3/4" thick. The paper is matte rather than shiny and most photos do not have cutlines.
As well as giving us a history of Oudolf's career and his evolving design concepts, the book introduces us to many of the gardeners and nursery people who inspired Oudolf. I'm guessing that many of these names will be unfamiliar to you if you only know American and UK gardens and gardeners.
What I found particularly satisfying about the book is the way it is laid out with dozens of short pieces interspersed throughout the book. These cover everything from the gardeners I just mentioned, to the china the Oudolfs' collect, to Piet as a photographer and to various aspects of his planting styles (block, matrix etc.) All in all a book that belongs in your library and one you will pick up again and agin after your first reading. Well worth the hefty price tag of $50.00 in the U.S. It's published by the esteemed Monacelli Press and was printed in Slovenia.
NOTE: This is also posted on my blog where you can see the pictures referenced in the text: http://eachlittleworld.typepad.com/ea...
I'm not really sure when I first heard of Oudolf but I know I bought my first Oudolf book, "Gardening with Grasses", co-authored with Michael King, in 1998. But it was my first visit to the Lurie Garden in Chicago (next two pictures below) that made me understand just how differently Oudolf was thinking and planting than the rest of us. If you've been to that garden or the High Line in NYC, among other of Oudolf's creations, you know what I mean.
Over the years there have been a number of books that showcased Oudolf's designs or told us how to create our own version of them. But it's only now that we finally have a book about Piet, a man who says, "only footballers have books written about them." Noel Kingsbury, who has collaborated on design, research and writing with Oudolf, co-authored this book as well.
"Oudolf Hummelo" is a joy to read on any level. It's intelligent, amusing, educational, well-designed and stuffed with images. I would say it is a very Dutch book. It's certainly an un-American garden book when you compare it to the steady stream of coffee table books that fill the shelves at bookstores. First of all this is a small scale book in the garden publishing world, given its famous subject. It's only 7" x 9 and 1/4" in size, though it's a hefty 1 and 3/4" thick. The paper is matte rather than shiny and most photos do not have cutlines.
As well as giving us a history of Oudolf's career and his evolving design concepts, the book introduces us to many of the gardeners and nursery people who inspired Oudolf. I'm guessing that many of these names will be unfamiliar to you if you only know American and UK gardens and gardeners.
What I found particularly satisfying about the book is the way it is laid out with dozens of short pieces interspersed throughout the book. These cover everything from the gardeners I just mentioned, to the china the Oudolfs' collect, to Piet as a photographer and to various aspects of his planting styles (block, matrix etc.) All in all a book that belongs in your library and one you will pick up again and agin after your first reading. Well worth the hefty price tag of $50.00 in the U.S. It's published by the esteemed Monacelli Press and was printed in Slovenia.
NOTE: This is also posted on my blog where you can see the pictures referenced in the text: http://eachlittleworld.typepad.com/ea...
September 13, 2016
3 stars because I dislike Noel Kingsbury's writing. Love the photos even though many are repeats from other books, and the personal look at the life of this plant-kindred.
November 8, 2015
Inspiring. Perennial gardens. Curated "natural" settings. Mixing natives and horticultural plants. I wonder, though, whether one day folks will question the wisdom of mixing so many North American native plants into European landscapes. The creeping bellflower invasion in my yard shows the risk of importing Eurasian plants to this continent. I have taken a reading list from this book.
April 10, 2020
What a gardener. What an artist. I so love that he welcomes any plants that will thrive and not take over into his gardens. Not being so strict as to plant only native. His use of grasses and Prairie plants are spectacular.
November 25, 2015
I liked this book but had to return it to the library before I was finished. It's pretty long and though the subject matter is interesting to me it's not exactly a page turner...Piet Oudolf is one of my design heroes so it was interesting to learn more about his roots and process. I hope to finish the book at a later date... Till then I'm giving it three stars with the definite potential for more.
August 28, 2016
Clearly a man who thinks outside the box, Piet Oudolf describes how he has developed his gardening style. Lots of pictures of his house, gardens and nursery, Hummelo. Inspired by Karl Forster, a German gardener, he took those ideas and ran with them. Luckily the book shows lots of pictures of gardens he has designed, so it functions as a list of places that are now on my "short list" of gardens to go to.
October 13, 2015
Beautiful book! Review to follow.
January 15, 2016
Gorgeous, informative, educational, inspirational; I'd give it 20 stars if I could.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews