Tim Richardson looks at the cutting edge of garden style, which involves boundary-less gardens, a 'no-design’ approach, dry-garden plants and a rewilding sensibility. But in fact this style of gardening has a long history, dating back to William Robinson in the late 19th century, followed by influential 20th-century figures such as the German nurseryman Karl Forster and Dutch designer Mien Ruys. Is the ’naturalistic turn’ of the mid 1990s a philosophy, an ideology, or just a point of view?