In her study of public perception of urban woodland in Redditch, Bussey (1996) came to certain conclusions regarding the character and location of urban woodland that are relevant to large scale ecological plantings of woody vegetation. Bussey found that people have a surprising need for woodland close to their home: 11.13 An urban meadow in […]
Category: The Dynamic Landscape
Safety and freedom to choose
Safety is the single most important issue relating to all kinds of naturalistic ecological planting in public urban settings, but particularly to woody vegetation. Whilst both anecdotal evidence and research suggest that thoughtful design can contribute to a sense of safety (Jorgensen et al. 2002), it seems clear that there are many people who will […]
Public involvement in relation to naturalistic ecological planting
It seems likely that a clear consensus as to the appearance and characteristics of ecological planting will be uncommon among the general public. Sharing information is therefore likely to be an important part of the involvement process (though not the only part). Realistic photomontages showing the anticipated appearance of the new plantings may be a […]
Future focus
This final section does not seek to lay down hard and fast rules for the social dimensions of planning or designing with ecological plantings, naturalistic or otherwise. This chapter has shown that the state of knowledge about public attitudes to ecological plantings in public urban settings is patchy and much more research is needed to […]
Non-naturalistic ecological herbaceous plantings
As previously indicated, changes in the context or the nature of the planting, particularly in plant density and spatial organisation, can determine whether an ecological herbaceous planting appears designed as opposed to natural. So, on the one hand, there is the Garden of Movement in Parc Andre Citroen in Paris, and, at the other extreme, […]
(Extract from questionnaire research carried out by Landlife (1994))
A recent study examined public preference for flowering as opposed to green herbaceous vegetation (Dai 2000). The impact of vegetation height (low, medium and tall), colour (yellow or multi-coloured), and pattern of colour distribution (spots or patches) was examined. Again, respondents were asked to rate digital images depicting different combinations of the variables. The variations […]
Ecological herbaceous plantings
Dividing herbaceous ecological plantings into the two categories of naturalistic or wildlooking and non-naturalistic is an artificial exercise in one sense, suggesting that such plantings fall into one category or the other. In reality, there is a continuum from wildlooking to highly-designed, with many intermediate points. Naturalistic or wild-looking herbaceous planting tends to rely for […]
Non-naturalistic ecological woodland plantings
These might involve using a multi-layered vegetation structure typical of natural wood or scrub whilst imparting formality through context and layout. Arguably, the deployment of flamboyant exotic species can also make a multi-layered woodland planting look more designed; but this approach depends on the viewer’s ability to recognise the species as exotic. Ecological planting using […]
Ecological woodland plantings
Naturalistic ecological woodland plantings The key distinguishing feature of ecological plantings of trees and other woody species is the presence of one or more layers of understorey vegetation. Conversely, conventional urban parkland in the English Landscape style consists of mature trees limbed up to several metres above ground level in a setting of mown grass. […]
Public preference for ecological vegetation types
For reasons of time and space, this review of the available research about public attitudes to ecological plantings in public open spaces concentrates predominantly on the UK, but comments are also made about Europe and the US, where evidence is available. Different countries and cultures have very different planting traditions in their public landscapes and […]