Dynamic is a word naturalistically-oriented plantspeople like to whip out because it sounds exciting. One of the classic books of naturalistic planting, by James Hitchmough and the late Nigel Dunnett, is actually titled The Dynamic Landscape.
Dynamic planting is often framed in contrast to static planting - where plants are located in specific locations shown on a plan and expected to stay there, while expanding vertically and horizontally as noted on a tag. By contrast, dynamic planting lets plants move.
I included a definition of “dynamic” planting as a key term in my 2020 piece for Land8, “Learning the Language of Contemporary Planting Design”: “In a “dynamic” planting, physical distribution of individual plants changes over time, based on self-sowing and spreading. Placement of individual plants is not significant to the design intent.”
That’s still what most people mean when they use the term “dynamic” to describe a planting approach. Plants are allowed to move horizontally through a designated space. But, with a few more years of experience, I think planting can be dynamic in more dimensions than just the horizontal.
Here are a few that I’ve initially thought might be useful - please share any additional dimensions of dynamism you’re thinking through in the comments:
1. Spatial dynamism
Where do plants go?
This is the dimension naturalistically included plantspeople talk about most: stolons run, seedlings appear, colonies expand and contract, plants migrate through a garden. The composition isn't geographically fixed. Where a plant is planted isn’t necessarily where it’s required to stay. Plants participate in determining the composition's spatiality. They move through expanding colonies, self-sowing, and sometimes dwindling or death.
In many cases, certain plant communities or layers of planting in a garden are treated dynamically - while others may be fixed. In many cases, the herbaceous or groundcover layers of a planting are allowed to mix and mingle, while larger shrubs and trees are treated as fixed. I don’t know of many designed plantings (besides ecological restorations) where trees are encouraged to seed around and spread themselves at will. Maybe some of the east coast gardens that incorporate suckering species like American Sassifras (Sassifras albidum) and various Rhus are the best examples of dynamic planting at a tree scale. I’d love to see some gardens where larger, longer-maturity trees are allowed to distribute themselves this way.
2. Compositional dynamism
How do relationships among plants change?
This could be considered part of spatial dynamism - but I’m thinking about it more from a species composition/diversity perspective. Compositional dynamism would include changes in relative abundance, dominance, and community structure. Succession is one possible form, but not the only one.
3. Genetic dynamism
What new variation can emerge across generations?
The planting isn't allowing existing individuals to rearrange themselves: there’s opportunity for successive generations to continue to evolve and express novel combinations of characteristics. Starting with greater or lesser genetic diversity in the specimens planted creates opportunity for evolution to occur. With many species, you’re going to need more than one clonal selection for good seed set and ongoing population expansion of each species. I’m going to write more about this in another post - especially an idea I’m exploring called population gardening.
4. Ecological dynamism
What relationships and processes develop between different organisms?
A garden quickly becomes an active ecological community rather than merely a changing arrangement of vegetation. It changes the relationships with other beings who share the space - and they then change the planting. Pollination and herbivory, plant-microbiome feedback, and mycorrhizal networks all set in motion feedback loops with cumulative effects which are often poorly understood in a garden context.
5. Curatorial dynamism
How does care open a wider range of possibilities?
This ties back to what I was thinking through in the earlier post intervention and inevitability in naturalistic planting design. Planting management involves a wide range of disturbance techniques that prevent the most aggressive species and dominant processes from determining an inevitable end to the garden. A skilled gardener notices emerging possibilities, works with the plants and processes of a garden, and creates conditions for new excitements to occur. I think about seedling selection for specific traits, artful pruning, and curatorial weeding as some of the key aspects of curatorial dynamism.
6. Experiential dynamism
How does the garden change throughout times of day, the seasons, the year?
This is one of the elements of landscape that appeals to me the most: change. I find little appeal in gardens or landscapes that look much the same throughout the year. I want seasonal transformation, atmospheric change, discovery, anticipation, unusual encounters, and accumulated meaning.