Piet Oudolf garden breaks ground on Belle Isle

By Tom Perkins

Jun 11, 2019 at 3:39 pm

Audio By Carbonatix

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Piet Oudolf Collection / Facebook

Piet Oudolf's Vlinderhof garden in the Netherlands.

Work is underway on a new garden on Belle Isle by world-renowned Dutch landscape designer and "plantsman" Piet Oudolf.

Plans call for about 18,000 plants and two plantings — one that takes place in September and another in spring 2020. The 2.5-acre garden will be ready in fall 2020.

It's being accommodated locally by the Michigan Garden Club, which raised $4.2 million for the build and maintenance.

Oudolf's work can be found on New York City's Highline, in Chicago's Lurie Garden, and throughout the world. His latest gardens are primarily composed of native perennials and grasses, and are designed around plants' structures and seasonal changes as opposed to color or flowers.

Areas around where the garden is being planted are usually off limits to the public during part of the spring when billionaire Roger Penske converts around one-third of Belle Isle into a private racetrack for the Detroit Grand Prix. It's unclear if the garden will be open to the public during that time.

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