The garden of designer Jelle Grintjes is a dynamic display of creative plant combinations, which he moved plant by plant from his previous home
WORDS BELINDA COOPER PHOTOGRAPHS CLAIRE TAKACS
In 2020, garden designer Jelle Grintjes and his wife decided to move from a small terraced house in the centre of town to a larger property on the outskirts. Unusually, this also meant relocating a 1,400 square-metre perennial garden that Jelle had made nearby. He’d approached his local municipality in 2013 about renting some disused land in front of his house. “The idea was to make a garden for myself as an experiment, to try different combinations and see if it would work,” he says. The municipality agreed, but on one condition – he had to make the garden public.
That garden soon became an important showcase for his work. Visitor numbers grew quickly, with people coming from as far afield as Australia. “I thought, if people are coming from so far to see my garden, maybe I should make a bigger one to offer them more. I talked about it with my wife, and we decided to take this big step.” The move was a gamble. They weren’t sure if people would visit a new garden, and they faced the huge challenge of transplanting the perennials, grasses and bulbs from the previous space.
His new garden, originally the meadow of a nearby farm, sits on heavy clay, so Jelle’s first task was to add a 10cm layer of sand across the site. This helps control the weeds but has also opened up the soil and makes it easier for plants to self-seed.
Arriving at the parking area beside the house, there is a small seating terrace and a gravel garden, then mown grass paths lead you through the planting beds. “The first few hundred metres near the house are very colourful, with many perennials and flower bulbs,” Jelle explains. “The areas further away have more grasses and are more natural.” This is also where he grows the taller perennials, such as Cephalaria gigantea, sanguisorbas and vernonias. An open fence between the garden and the farmer’s meadow extends the view. “In midsummer, the meadow grass is the same size as the grasses in my garden. From the house, it looks like one big garden.”
The garden comes to life much earlier, in early spring, with swathes of bulbs from mid-February. Jelle plants for effect, using a wide variety of perennials. He ties
