Federal Twist: James Golden

When James Golden set out to create a wet prairie in western Jersey, he faced heavy clay, standing water, and a derelict woodland. Eschewing traditional approaches, he planted right into the matrix of weedy invasives, without mulching, amending the soil or spraying herbicide—unconventional methods Thomas Rainer and Claudia West call “a daring dance with nature.”

Today, Golden’s acclaimed Federal Twist is a lush riot of hardy grasses and perennials given structure by tall, architectural plants, and has been profiled in Gardens Illustrated, The New York Times, Rainer and West’s Planting in a Post-Wild World, Claire Takacs’s Dreamscapes, and Christopher Wood’s Gardenlust.

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