♪ i can't believe it ♪
The concepts of the wild gardens, neo-naturalism, the british gardens, and natural mirrors have been the subject of a round of lively discussions in social media in recent years, with very similar meanings, despite their variety of names, pointing to a modern trend that has been promoted in the landscape and horticultural world — natural cultivation。
Figure 1: natural planting landscape of hauser & wirth somerset gallery, summer of oudolf field
Figure 2: natural planting landscape of hauser & wirth somerset gallery, winter of oudolf field
In landscape gardening, what is natural cultivation
In a nutshell, like nature like planting, any vegetation that appears to be inspired by nature can be included。
The garden was created by the unfailing quest of human beings to be close to nature. Even in the seventeenth century, the designer of versailles gardens, andré le nôtre, spoke about his design thinking, in which he said: “my only idea is to help nature and reveal its beauty with as much cost control as possible”. And in the eyes of those who were at that time, the sheared hedges and the symmetrically symmetrical rises represented the elevated nature。
Figure 3: super bloom project of the tower of london, which transforms the mud-filled ancient moat into a vibrant flower sea, designed with the participation of nigel dunnett。
For centuries, the relationship between man and nature has evolved, affecting the way people perceive nature. Our definition of “natural vegetation” is clearly not the same as it was in the seventeenth century. In order to distinguish between previous traditional cultivation, natural cultivation was raised. The terminologies that flow from social media, as mentioned at the beginning of this paper, are nothing more than synonyms of natural cultivation, or just a branch of practice。
Contemporary cultivation methods can be summarized as six gradients, and natural cultivation, which is now the dominant view, usually covers the range from 3rd to 6th gradients, from traditional informal cultivation to habitat restoration:
Naturalistic planting
200 years of the “natural” path
Although natural cultivation represents a new promise for the gardens to which modern people aspire, the idea of applying ecological theory to gardening 200 years ago, followed by the progressive development of such disciplines as plant geography, vegetation ecology and plant breeding, has made it possible to classify vegetation types around the world, explore their patterns, habitats, understand the composition and evolution of natural vegetation communities, and then plant and apply them to pave the way for natural cultivation。
Figure 4: the florist sea by the lake of trentham gardens, which began in 1599, was designed with the participation of nigel dunnett and produced a beautiful flower sea at the lowest cost using seeding。
While the development of disciplines provides the theoretical and practical basis for natural cultivation, it is the result of a contradictory compromise that has really begun to spread on a large scale: since the twentieth century, human settlements in western countries have increased significantly, urban greenlands have increased significantly, and the pace of socio-economic growth has slowed, the management of the urban greenland budget has become impossible to follow, and more economical natural cultivation has emerged; on the other hand, the satisfaction of basic material conditions has led to a greater quest for physical proximity, relaxation and ecological stability, which has also contributed to the prevalence of natural cultivation。
Naturalistic planting
What natural cultivation means to my country
Using other countries as a mirror, the trend towards replacement can be seen in the domestic vegetation landscape. By 2020, the per capita housing area had reached 41. 76 square metres, making significant progress in terms of volume, and people are increasingly looking at the improvement in the quality of living. Many studies focusing on the physical and mental health of the socio-demographic population point to the fact that, as urbanization advances, people's physical and mental health is increasingly dependent on adequate equipping and quality upgrading of urban vegetation landscapes. This trend is more pronounced in east asia, where high population density is more pronounced than in cities. Urban planning in the country's future will also increase investment in public green land, but our socio-economic growth is also slowing. Should more sustainable and low-managing farming models be considered at the outset of design in the face of incremental public greenfields
Figure 5: applications of natural planting in urban greening, grey to green project in sheffield, united kingdom, designed by nigel dunnett
Figure 6: applications of natural planting in urban greening, grey to green project in sheffield, united kingdom, designed by nigel dunnett
In addition, people are increasingly dreaming of building gardens on their balcony, balcony, front and back yard, even going back to their homes or to the countryside to find a place to live in. The retail sales of horticultural goods increased by 30 per cent from 2021 to 2022 only. How do you want to look after the flowers when you buy them back? On weekends to nature, whether it's a country park or a national park, what kind of vegetation do you expect
Figure 7: applications of natural planting in private gardens. The golden prize project at the circumcosis in 2022, out of shadow garden, chen jing
Figure 8: applications of natural planting in private gardens. The golden prize project at the circumcosis in 2022, out of shadow garden, chen jing
Figure 9: applications of natural planting in private gardens. The bookles travel garden, 2022
In addition to natural beauty, which reduces long-term management inputs, natural cultivation has a clear advantage over traditional cultivation methods in terms of species diversity that can better support wildlife and enhance ecosystem stability; and because of its large biomass and complex community structures, which play a more prominent role in cleaning up air, blocking noise, carbon sequestration and cutting-off rainfall to mitigate urban flooding. Natural cultivation, with its more natural appearance, its more abundant green mass, its longer flowering period and more flowering, also makes it easier to feel positive emotions such as healing, relaxation and excitement in the playgrounds and contributes to the physical and mental health of urban dwellers. But such practice is not common in our countries and lacks experience. Moreover, the vastness of the country and the variability of climatic and soil conditions make the selection of suitable plant species according to the location of the project a top challenge。
Naturalistic planting
Naturally, the flowers are beautiful
It's time to embrace nature, to accept changes in plant seasons, to love the flowers they bloom, and to love the leaves that are dying, to tell our children that this is nature, that it is beautiful and that it changes。
Of course, we are not in favour of all urban greenland vegetation being designed in any single form of cultivation. Not only do people now need to feel the beauty of vegetation, but they also demand more of the environment around us: for example, a sense of physical satisfaction and healing, a sense of purpose to provide shelter to other organisms, or a sense of urgency to provide a better living environment for their children. We simply need to develop an advanced planting model that is more compatible with ecological theory and that, while meeting our further demands, expands more options and imaginations for later urban public greens, a small garden behind the front house。
As a botanical garden targeting “domestic leaders and international leaders”, sinoyama has been a pioneer in a variety of front-line horticulture or planting techniques, with many areas using natural cultivation, in particular:
Naturalistic planting
Natural planters' first scouts - the bouquets
Picture 10: tsayama botanical garden - tsayama ring (1)
The eucalyptus ring, located on the outer green ring of the ameyama botanical garden, has been extended from the observatoire bridge to the greenhouses ' genchi botanical house, which is 850 metres long and covers a total area of 2,300 square metres. The selection of plant materials consists mainly of flowers shrubs, multi-year ball roots plants and ornamental grass, of which 11 plants, 18 species, 38 species, 210 plants, and 190,55,000 plants for many years。
In 2014, construction began on a scale early in 2015 and was followed by many years of adaptation and adaptation, the first exploration of natural cultivation. The initial design demand was to use limited plant materials to create plant landscapes on an unconventional scale and with low conservation requirements, so that designers, on the basis of natural bouquets, were able to break ground in space layouts, forms of cultivation, plant configurations, etc., to interpret their own unique understanding。
Photo 11: sinoyama botanical garden - sinoyama ring (2)
Unlike the spatial layout of the traditional flower landscape, which focuses on small scales, the euphoria ring is more integrated from micro to macro. By integrating the concept of music on the basis of a green ring, integrating the three instruments of plane design, floor design and structured planting to organize the planting of blocks and plants within them, a large-scale natural landscape with a hierarchy of changes in the overall unity is created。
It is worth mentioning that, unlike the block cultivation in the traditional flowerland and the typical highly naturalistic combinations of cultivation, each of the blocks in the bouquets is grown with a single or two to three combinations of materials. This form of cultivation, which appears to be simple to look at only one of them, increases the continuity of the overall sensory experience and seasonal changes by skilfully managing the relationship between the more than 400 planting blocks on the euphoria ring, and gives the whole ring an extremely rich variety of plants, with the presence of space between them also making their organization well organized and easy to manage, reducing resource consumption of plants, water, energy, etc., and having the universal value of building conservation societies。
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Natural planting and reprogramming - mixed flowers
Photo 12: tsayama botanical garden - mixed flowerland (1)
The blended flowers, located on the grass slopes on the banks of the sheath river in the north american plant area of the park, are approximately 2,500 m2, adapted over five years, with about 50 herbs planted, mainly as the main plant material, adapted to the growing and well-performing roots of the shanghai region, and supported by ball root flowers and ornamental grasses, to create today's mixed landscape of natural flowers. If graded according to the gradients summarized above, the flowerland can be classified as the “styreization natural planting” of level 4。
Picture 13: tsayama botanical gardens - mixed flowers (2)
In the case of flowers, tatsuyama designers have placed greater emphasis on landscape needs in the hope that they will provide good landscapes for as many seasons as possible, although they are structured to imitate wild grassland communities and allow controlled self-sowning of some plants, they still require a certain amount of manual maintenance. To maintain the landscape, some of these plants are replaced or replenished annually。
The blending of flowers is another attempt at natural cultivation in the mountains and will continue to be updated and adapted more closely in the future in anticipation of a well-developed set of combinations and systems to be replicated and tried in more urban green spaces。
As noted earlier, natural cultivation encompasses a range of farming practices, which can have different effects in nature, as well as differences in management practices, and progress in public awareness of it. However, in order to help workers who are committed to providing a better habitat for their citizens, to understand the prevailing public perception of natural cultivation, we would like to invite citizens to participate on a voluntary basis in the following questionnaire to actively contribute their ideas and strength to the future park greens and natural ecology
Carnation: this questionnaire is a completely anonymous questionnaire and does not collect sensitive information such as any name contact information. The academic questionnaire, which is somewhat cumbersome, takes 10 to 15 minutes. While expertise was involved, the information was well explained and anyone who read it carefully could answer without having to have a professional background. Please answer honestly and seriously, without special reflection, simply on the first impression of a person's preference for vegetation, without the correct answer, and with ease and pleasure. You are welcome to participate, or to join your family, friends, colleagues。
