As an enthusiastic interior gardener, I love the innovative ideas for urban gardening that come from 2025. With more and more people, the smart ways to grow, share, share in challenging garden rooms, seem to be the possibilities for an urban garden now. The municipal garden designers Bart Haverkamp and Pieter Croes say that it is even possible to create a wild garden in these environments.
Their characteristic style of urban wild gardening creates the appearance of natural environments in environments that are otherwise made up of hard landscape design. The Belgian designers specialize in the roof gardens, but their methods can be adopted on urban spaces of all forms-balconies, containers and even window boxes.
The case studies in your upcoming book, Wild harmony (Available for pre -ordering at Amazon)Show how you take a space of nature and transform it into an urban oasis that bursts green, and it turns out that there are some tricks to achieve this. I spoke to Pieter to find out the secret of success in achieving a lavish, wild urban garden.
What is Urban Wildgärtner?
(Credit: Wild Harmonie)
When it comes to wild gardening, you can immediately imagine a large garden that is not taken into account. This is exactly what Bart Haverkamp and Pieter Croes say about wild gardening: to leave nature to take the lead. But they demand that you do not need a spacious place to achieve this.
Of course, the work in an urban garden is that there may be no way from the start that you can work with. This applies in particular to the hard landscapes of balcony gardens and roofs.
Urban wild gardens often include to bring in a lot of plants first to create a natural landscape. Pieter Croes Tell me. For this reason, Pieter and Bart first speak to their customers to develop a design, similar to the planning of a garden that is to be maintained.
“For example, if we do a roof garden, it is only the beginning of the story,” says Pieter. “It depends on the customer and the people who take care of the garden, what will become of it.”
If an urban garden is created and established, it can make it wild if this looks like the desired. However, it is not as easy as to choose the selection of plants for every room.
Bart and Pieter are in Belgian -based garden designers who have been working together for thirty years. Her focus is on urban gardens, roof terraces and small rooms. They devote themselves to sustainability and work if they take into account climate change when designing new rooms. With over three decades of intuitive, organic practice, this duo has developed a signature style that is rooted in sustainability, spontaneity and deep respect for nature.
The key to creating a wild urban garden
(Credit: Wild Harmonie)
Regardless of whether you create an urban roof garden, change a balcony room or only work with a small container garden on your front door, Pieter says that it is possible to reach urban wild gardens in any form.
There is only one important rule that you have to follow: Plant for the room with which you work to grow your plants wildly.
“Our wild planting style is defined by the choice of plants and the rooms in which we work. For example, they are often limited in roof gardens. They need plants that can withstand a lot of sun and wind,” says Pieter.
Just like taking into account your US hardinity zone, it is important to select plants for urban areas with which you work. In a roof, this may be sun -loving Mediterranean plants, while a protected inner courtyard garden or a balcony oriented north require some of the best shadow plants.
You can also choose wind -resistant shrubs and trees if your city garden does not offer great protection.
However, it is not just the sun and wind inputs: “The soil type you use on a roof is more or less the same, volcanic soil so that you cannot plant a plant.
“For example, if you want to rhododendrons, you may have to add something to make your floor more acidic,” says Pieter.
Consideration of soil health is the key to a successful urban garden garden, since your plants are unable to grow and spread it, which gives you a wild look without the right growing medium.
Volcanic soil (or volcanic rock dust change, which is available from Amazon) is often used on roofs because it is easy, offers good drainage and is rich in essential plant nutrients. This also makes it a great option for balcony gardens, in which the weight limit may have to be observed.
In general, it is generally that you make sure that you use a well -driven sheet metal output (like this from Amazon) to ensure that moisture management is available because potted plants are susceptible to oversaturation.
Let your plants grow as it likes
(Credit: Wild Harmonie)
After you have made a careful selection of the plants for the surroundings with which you work, it is about the plants grow and can gently take over their space.
This means a minimal circumcision that Pieter can only do if this is absolutely necessary. Of course, avoid errors such as cutting out sick or damaged plant material (with sharp tools such as these cut shears from Amazon), but are not trying to make your urban wild garden look too neat.
»If you allow the plants to take over, it will be wild in an urban, nature oppressed. When they talk about “wild”, it sounds a bit ruthless, but harmony makes the plants grow together and combine in the room, ”says Pieter.
Wildharmonie: Urban Gardens by Bart & Pieter
Wild harmony Marks the signature style of Bart and Pieter, with whom nature can take over the room. It has more than twenty of their latest projects that have been completed in the past ten years and mainly focus on urban gardens, rooms on the roof, terraces and small actions that highlight what can be done with limited space and budget.
Faqs
How can I attract wild animals in my urban garden?
There are many ways to win wild animals in their urban garden. This includes the decision for container systems for pollinators and a bird case or a bug hotel (like this from Amazon). You can also provide protection for a number of wild animals in the form of plenty of plants and shrubs. Even if you only have a small balcony room to work, try to leave a dish with water to drink and bathe from birds. Discover our guide in the wildlife gardens to get more inspiration.
Something that Pieter indicates that he loves to create urban staunda is how different everyone turns out. This is because there are many ways to introduce naturalistic plants into your room and newly too wild your garden so that you can create an oasis for your taste.