March Column In Velvet Magazine

With International Women’s Day and Mothering Sunday all happening in the month of March it got me thinking about important women within garden design (the mothers of design). Of course, there are so many that have been recognized for their influence and as with all things I am sure there is a huge list of those that sadly haven’t been recognized or appreciated. The obvious female horticulturalists that spring to mind are Gertrude Jekyll (who between 1843 and 1932 created or consulted on over 400 gardens in the UK, Europe and America) and Beth Chatto (who as well as being an award winning plants woman and author, she is well known for creating one of the most iconic gravel gardens on the planet which is definitely worth a visit if you haven’t been already, in Colchester) but not many have heard of one of my favorite designers, Mien Ruys.

Mein Ruys, short for Wilhelmina Jacoba Moussault-Ruys, was a Dutch landscape and garden architect who is considered a pioneer and leader in the ‘New Perennial Movement’. This naturalistic style is about making gardens symbiotic with nature which is still incredibly popular. Many of you will have heard of Piet Oudolf, who is garden design royalty and perhaps Giles Clement (another favorite of mine), both have made their name from adapting this new perennial style. The key to the structure of her designs was simplicity and clearness. Clean straight lines within the gardens are accompanied with very straight clipped squares of greenery in contrast with an exuberant use of perennials.

This style didn’t stop Mein from designing experimental gardens however, she was always experimenting with plants and materials. In the early 1960’s, for example, she experimented with using old railway sleepers which then led to them being used in Dutch gardens and are now a common site in gardens everywhere.

As a student of Garden Design, one particular day I was feeling particularly flat, a fall out from the previous day where I had worked for a well-known female designer who tried to beat inspiration out of me. Luckily for me, that day was spent listening to a lecture on Mien Ruys and after hours spent seeing the artistic and creative ways in which she used materials, hedging topiary etc I couldn’t help but be full of inspiration and excitement.

Next month I will, for the first time, be visiting her legacy garden ‘Tuinen Mien Ruys’ in the Netherlands and I cannot wait. Mien passed away in 1999 at the age of 94, maybe an unappreciated influence for many but to me she will always be an all-star.

© Velvet Magazine