ABSTRACT
Over the past 15 years a program of research undertaken by the author, his colleague Dr Nigel Dunnett, and numerous postgraduate students has led to the creation of new paradigms as to how public and in some cases private urban spaces (gardens) could be designed and planted. This research was conceived as a response to two long-term problems affecting urban parks and green space in Britain: a significant decline in the funding of maintenance programs and the erosion of horticultural vegetation maintenance and management skills within urban park authorities (Dunnett et al. 2002). These two factors had resulted in an ongoing simplification of urban parks and green spaces into mown grass and trees, as plantings of herbaceous plants and shrubs were “edited out” in both existing landscapes
and new developments. The challenge was to develop new types of vegetation that were inexpensive to install and could be maintained within a minimal resources environment, while meeting human aspirations for color and seasonal change, and providing a valuable habitat for native animal biodiversity.
