ABSTRACT
With the help of planting design we can create a landscape which is both rewarding and inspiring to live in. It gives us the opportunity to enrich people's lives and to create special places of beauty. Planting could be regarded as living sculpture or living art. If it is an art, then it is a cultural and individual response to the natural world. Like other arts and crafts, planting design communicates meaning. This chapter helps to establish a language of planting design which will enable the designer to speak more purposefully and more eloquently. Ecologists have shown the complexity of vegetation systems and inspired enthusiasm for habitat creation and nature-like planting – both for biodiversity and visual beauty. Planting design gives a way to unite the scientific understanding of the ecologist, the technical skill of the horticulturalist and the emotional and spiritual vision of the artist.
