Biosecurity and plant health is an awkward area for landscape architects to engage in: we tend to be generalists and biosecurity is a fast-changing and highly technical field with environmental, political and economic implications. Nevertheless, it’s an essential strand to what we do and understanding how our designs and actions affect biosecurity is a challenge.
Plant Thesaurus
Right plant right place
Finding the right plant for the right place is one of the biggest challenges for landscape architects. Henrik Sjoman’s paper on matching the range of tree species to urban environments shows how to do this with trees, and with the recent publication of the BSBI’s distribution database, we can start to use UK data to help us. There are loads of potential applications for this, whether it’s drawing up plant lists for meadow restorations, highways verges, SuDS schemes, street trees and community woodlands…
Learning from Wharram Quarry
I visited Wharram Quarry earlier this week and whilst marvelling at the huge orchid display, I reflected on Thomas Rainer and Claudia West’s book and what lessons landscape architects can learn from places like this.
Winter colours
When we talk about winter colour in the landscape, we usually think of witch hazels, crocuses and dogwoods, but a recent site visit to the Yorkshire Arboretum was a great reminder of the richness and complexity of the winter palette.
Folk House roof meadow
The Folk House roof meadow is an experiment to make the most of every square inch in the city, maximising the potential for biodiversity and a riot of colour wherever we find it.
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Using Magnolias as street trees
Alongside the consultancy work that Rootstock does, Harry is also in the process of submitting a research proposal to Sheffield University to study the potential of using Magnolias as street trees.
Botanising holoparasites
The language botanists use can be off putting for those trying to get to grips with the subject- even the very best texts on the subject require diligent study (my edition of Stern’s Botanical Latin is never far away) but once you do start to learn the basics, the whole world starts to make a bit more sense. The first landscape architect I worked for told me that the first hundred plants would be the hardest to learn: the next thousand would be easy. I was sceptical at the time but it seems to make sense.
