Strictly Sustainable: A passionate call for localism and a stronger cohesive voice for horticulture

‘Strictly Sustainable’ proved to be a lively and stimulating topic yesterday (Weds 16th September) at Palmstead Nurseries Soft Landscape Workshop. There were divergent and passionate views expressed by Landscape Architects, ecologists and garden designers on the way forward for sustainable horticultural development with one speaker - Mary Reynolds - predicting that "nature is being pushed to the edge of ecosystem collapse" and that "our gardens have become nature’s last stand".

300 delegates from across the industry met at the Ashford International Hotel in Kent for Palmstead''s popular annual event.

Nick Coslett, Marketing Manager at Palmstead Nurseries said of the event: “I think the delegates will take a lot away from today, all speakers promoted the drive towards localism, connectivity and community cohesion today and there was a unified call to be more collaborative as an industry. We must all continue and accelerate our individual contributions - every little helps and does make a difference. The passion of the speakers was fantastic and a real stimulus for the delegates. Probably most thought provoking was the message Mary Reynolds gave that we are closer to the edge than we thought. This ought to push us forward faster as landscape professionals - we can make a difference to our environment.  Without doubt we have to consult more with government and also give our wonderful horticultural associations (LI, BALI, RHS, HTA/APL) more information from the ground in order to strengthen our collective voice.”

Speakers on the day included Ken Trew from Argent the developers working on the Kings Cross project where public realm is so important to tenants and residents, Brita von Schoenaich leading landscape architect, Noel Farrer the president of the Landscape Institute, Guy Barter and Dr Alistair Griffiths from the RHS, Tim O’Hare the country’s foremost soil expert and green roof guru Dusty Gedge.

Irish Designer Mary Reynolds challenged the audience as she shared the basis of her ground-breaking book ''The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land & Ourselves'' (out in February) which focuses on the topic of forest gardening.  She said that there is only one answer to the question of sustainability: “in order for us to embrace the changes we must face to live sustainably, we have to become a locally based economy and we have to contract.  We have to take our power back and become self-sustainable as possible; grow our own food and try and source the remaining from a local economy and forest gardens.”

Dusty Gedge reiterated Mary Reynold’s warnings regarding nature’s fragile ecosystem and said: “Mary’s talk is very pertinent; everyone wants everything instantly - we need to let clients know it’s going to take 5 years to reach where it wants to be.  We have an avaricious nature - we want everything tomorrow - but we need to ask ‘what does the land want to be? and not What do I want it to be?”

Noel Farrer the president of the Landscape Institute spoke about localism - referring to the local markets in Barcelona which were key to community cohesion. He also expressed concern over the proliferation of green field sites without coherent landscape planning or forethought, he said he felt that overall “there is a new wave of optimism that things are changing and things are going to get better.”

Brita von Schoenaich reiterated Noel Farrer’s call to engage in localism as she made a plea for delegates to fight for the future of big trees and their inclusion in landscape planning. She said: “localism is key, you can’t underestimate how much power you have as an individual.  Go to the local authority, take part in consultations - so few people actually take part in these consultations - your voice will be heard.”

Brita von Schoenaich, a landscape architect who has made her name pioneering perennial planting said that as she reached her ‘middle’ age she had become obsessed with the fate of big trees in our cities, especially in London.  Schoenaich''s practice has been involved in the Kings Cross Square project with Stanton Williams Architects.  Schoenaich says: “it was difficult getting agreement to plant any big trees on this square and confirmed my fears for the long term future of our cities.”
She added that in order to avoid the apocalyptic vision of a city with no trees we needed a ‘Tree Tsar’ and she called upon the Mayor to provide one: “We need a Tree Tsar, someone with power who will say ‘we are going to have trees here, here and here, and the developer will pay for it.”

Nick Coslett concluded: “I hope events like today are important and help to re-energise the delegates, we have different sectors here - developers, constructors, designers, landscape architects and ecologists - but all of us have a common and cohesive voice and want to tackle the issue of sustainability. What is clear from today is that we can’t blindly go on, perhaps we need to temper the avarice in society and our customer base - the need to have everything today or tomorrow and to share a more sustainable and safer message.”

Bob Field the BALI National Chairman thanked Nick and Palmstead for putting on the event and asked delegates to join BALI or the other associations and “talk to us and then we can talk to government, we can then get our thoughts over correctly - you are not by yourselves.”

Palmstead Nurseries hope to continue the debate and have invited delegates for an Open Week running 19th to 23rd October when the doors of the nursery will be open for visitors.