PHILOSOPHICAL AND PRACTICAL CHALLENGES TO THE DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF PLANTINGS IN URBAN GREENSPACE IN THE 21^st CENTURY

This paper describes the decline in the use of traditional horticultural planting in urban greenspace in Britain in response to the development of sustainability-biodiversity notions, the ongoing funding crisis and the deskilling of the landscape maintenance workforce.
An alternative model of greenspace planting is proposed, that avoids the low biodiversity of simple horticultural monocultural planting and the potentially challenging appearance of native, nature-like plant communities.
This involves ecologically based plant communities developed at the University of Sheffield composed of both native and exotic species that can be both rich ecologically and aesthetically, and managed via crude non-selective techniques such as cutting and burning.
The remainder of the paper explores the impediments to the widespread adoption of this type of synthetic vegetation.
Particular attention is paid to whether non-native, exotic plants can validly be included within the concept of biodiversity and sustainability, valued by the public and successfully managed by horticulturally trained maintenance staff.

International Conference on Urban Horticulture

J. Hitchmough

Urban greenspace, biodiversity, sustainability, natives and exotics

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2004.643.11