Flowers on the ruins. Decorative meadow as the basis of the post-war urban landscape

/ Landscape /

During the next few years, Ukrainians will have to survive in conditions of limited resources and give up many benefits that have become common over the past decades. But not from urban landscaping. There is a technology that will allow even in the conditions of harsh wartime and post-war shortage of resources not to abandon the measures for greening of cities, but also to solve the urgent problem of disposing of thousands of tons of construction waste, which was formed as a result of the destruction.

Since the war did not eliminate global problems, such as rapid urbanization, climate change and overheating of cities, greening will have to solve a whole set of tasks. The following requirements for plantings come to the fore: reducing the cost of maintenance (that is, plantings should not be completely dependent on intensive care) and the maximum sustainability of landscapes — a minimum of 10–20 years.

Landscape designer Anna Galagan I am sure that a decorative meadow meets these requirements as precisely as possible - a low-budget, sustainable and progressive option for creating an artificial ecosystem. And crushed construction waste can be successfully used as a basis for meadow plantings.

Hanna Galagan, Landscape Designer, RHS Gold Medal Winner

Thus, post-war reconstruction always begins with the demolition of rubble and the disposal of garbage. And before starting to build something new, Ukrainians will have to decide what to do with thousands of tons of broken bricks, concrete and glass.

"Today's disposal methods, such as using construction waste as a base layer of soil on construction sites, will no longer work, given the volumes. Currently, a different approach is being used around the world, which is to grind construction waste and use it as a component of the planting layer. Such waste can be disposed of specifically for meadow plantations, because the lower the productivity of the soil, the more diverse range of plants can be achieved," Hanna explains.

A blooming meadow is able to level the negative urban background. This photo by Professor Nigel Dunnett illustrates the story of the renovation of urban wastelands during the Pictorial Meadows project in the book Naturalistic Planting Design.The Essential Guide. Image source: thenewperennialist.com

Sown meadows require the least resources to create and maintain, comply with the Maximum Impact Low Input principle developed by Sheffield University professors Nigel Dunnett and James Hitchmough, and will therefore be in the greatest demand, especially in post-war times.

Construction waste can be used for meadow plantings, because the lower the productivity of the soil, the more diverse the assortment of plants can be achieved

Previously, PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA wrote about the benefits of meadow landscaping and naturalized landscapes in an article "Mowing or earing? Lawns in a big city". Over the past two years, this global trend has only gained momentum. Meadow massifs confidently displace expensive and unstable parterre lawns even around administrative and business facilities, becoming the core of the landscape composition in residential quarters.

Flowering meadows around the Tower of London in the summer of 2022. To implement the Superbloom project, more than 20 million seeds of resistant meadow flowers and herbs were planted in the moat between the fortress walls

The Superbloom project was developed by the Historic Royal Palaces organization in collaboration with Grant Associates and Professor Nigel Dunnett of the Department of Horticulture at the University of Sheffield. Photo: Martin Elvery

One of the brightest events this summer was the new meadows in the moat near the Tower of London. The sea of ​​flowers not only delights the eye of the tourist, the role of these plantations in attracting pollinating insects and birds that feed on the seeds of meadow grasses is also invaluable. The "Superbloom" meadow, created in honor of the platinum jubilee of the Queen of Great Britain, was the first stage of the permanent transformation of the area around the Tower into a sustainable eco-landscape in the heart of the City of London.

 

Two components of success: substrate and seeds

"When everything around us is very complicated, we want simple solutions," says Hanna Galagan. The Ukrainian woman decided to repeat the experiment of the famous designer Sarah Price on her plot, who used a mixture of sand and gravel as the basis for her private garden, obtaining a continuously blooming lawn of drought-resistant grasses and flowers.

Hanna selected several test plots with soil of different quality. As seed material, the designer used a mixture for decorative meadows compiled by James Hitchmough, a professor at the University of Sheffield. The Hitchmow mix consists of seeds of 25 perennials, 14 of which are basic and 11 accent "upstarts". All plants are drought-resistant and selected from regions similar in conditions to the steppe zone. Decorative compositions created by the authors of the "Sheffield School" Hitchmow and Danet have decorated the streets and roofs of European cities for many years, but it was important to experimentally check whether the recipe of English urbanists is optimal for Ukraine.

Hanna Galagan's experiment started back in the spring of 2021, when no one could predict the scale of the upcoming war. In February, the designer was forced to leave Ukraine, and the experimental plots were left without care. Only in July 2022, after returning, Hanna was able to evaluate the results. Despite the lack of watering and weeding, the test meadow pleased with lush flowering. And the best result was on the site where the poorest soil was used.

Sarah Price's naturalistic landscape. Photo: Claire Takacs

PRAGMATIKA.MEDIA: To what extent were your expectations fulfilled and what conclusions did you draw from the results of the first stage of your experiment?

Anna Galagan: I didn't even expect that everything would turn out so well. And the main conclusion: the soil and its preparation are of great importance. The onion on the basis of the substrate for the green roof showed itself the best. It contains only 30% of humus, but a lot of sand and crushed expanded clay. I also added perlite and vermiculite to reduce the weight of the soil, but if we are not creating a flower bed on the roof, but on the ground, then you can do without them. Meadow plants prefer light, poor soil, but weeds develop much weaker on it. It is on chernozem that they feel great, and on poor soil their shoots are small, weak and easily removed. Last year, I still had to do weeding, because I didn't have time to prepare the soil, and according to the schedule, it was necessary to sow already. Preparation usually involves a herbicide treatment to kill all weeds. And this year the weeds did not grow at all.

Undoubtedly, the composition of the mixture for meadow flower beds will have to be experimented with further. It is best to use crushed brick mixed with sand and soil for the "cushion" (or base layer). Plants perceive concrete and gravel worse. Last year, I laid one of the plots on a mixture of gravel and sand with a small addition of soil. Since there was no watering, the plants in this area did not grow. However, James Hitchmow said that one of his roofs was realized on a cushion of broken concrete. I would like to try. But in fact we will have to work with mixed construction waste.

An experimental plot with a decorative meadow in the private garden of Hanna Galagan. Photo: Hanna Galagan

PM: If we talk about the debris that was formed after the bombings, then, in addition to concrete and bricks, there will also be glass, plastic, iron, and some organic matter. Will the wreckage have to be sorted?

G. G .: Yes, you will have to sort. My colleague from England told me that since no construction is complete without garbage to be disposed of, they have special mobile installations that can be used to shred garbage right on site. There are special organizations that deal with this. But no one will crush wooden frames together with concrete. Therefore, during the dismantling of rubble, it is necessary to sort this garbage at least minimally. If, of course, we are interested in its disposal and reuse, and do not want to create somewhere on the outskirts of a landfill from waste.

PM: How thick should the crushed brick, concrete substrate layer be?

G. G .: 15–20 centimeters. Land from the site, sand and crushed debris can be mixed directly on the spot with an excavator. Below, under the pillow, there will be native soil. Of course, it will contain roots and weed seeds, as it did in my test plots. Weeds must be destroyed with herbicides before sowing. Yes, a layer of poor substrate kills competitors, but if we are talking about a large area, manual weeding will not be effective. There is another way to "deplete" our overly nutritious Ukrainian soil - to add a layer of so-called minimally nutritious mulch on top of the native base layer (Hitchmow usually uses a layer of sand about 10 cm thick, and in our case I would try sand with crushed construction debris and would increase the thickness to at least 15 cm). The choice of method will depend on the conditions of a specific area, on the availability of resources.

PM: Are such sites suitable for planting perennials or ornamental plants, or are they optimal for meadow mixtures?

G. G .: They are intended exclusively for meadow plants with long roots, capable of receiving nutrition and water from the lower layers, from a great depth. Thanks to this root, they are not afraid of drought. Such plants are representatives of the steppe flora.

An experimental plot with a decorative meadow in the private garden of Hanna Galagan. Photo: Hanna Galagan

PM: You used a ready-made mixture of meadow herbs for your experiments, a mix made by James Hitchmough. Will Ukrainian gardeners be able to make their mixes from endemics of our region or will they have to buy these mixes?

G. G .: Of course, you can make your own mixes. But there are two nuances. Endemics are great, but grassland endemics have a very short growing cycle and are ornamental for a short time. Seeds of ornamental cultivated plants should be added to the mixture to extend the decorative season. You can, of course, sow field chamomile, but it will bloom in a few weeks.

Our task is to create a picture for the townspeople that pleases the eye, which will be effective for several months

The purpose of my experiment was to see, in particular, how ready-made mixtures work, in order to shorten the path of trial and error. Hitchmow has been experimenting with the composition for 40 years, so the mixture is successfully balanced. And yet I saw that it will have to be adjusted a little for Ukraine.

PM: How do you plan to adjust?

G. G .: You can order all the components of the mixture separately and slightly change the proportions. In the Hitchmow mixture there are several plants that are invasive to our zone, their number should be reduced or eliminated altogether. And I would like to add more resistant herbs. The grass that was included in the mixture did not feel well in the first season and did not overwinter. Even if the problem is in the microclimate of my area, such a plant can no longer be called resistant. Echinacea, for example, successfully vegetates and blooms everywhere. Selection of the ideal mixture specifically for Ukraine is the next stage of my experiment, which will continue. But you can start the process of street landscaping with the help of such bows on the garbage already now, from ready-made mixtures. They are beautiful.

Superbloom is a “slow firework display” in honor of Queen Elizabeth's platinum jubilee. The idea behind the creation of flowering naturalistic meadows around the Tower is not only to beautify the cityscape, but also to help pollinators and the ecosystem as a whole. Photo: Richard Lea-Hair

PM: But these mixtures will have to be ordered from European companies?

G. G .: There are not many reliable suppliers of seeds in the world. Unfortunately, there will be problems with Ukrainian seeds in the coming years. The focus will be on something completely different: not on growing decorative herbs and harvesting seeds. Plus, the Russians destroyed, for example, the Kharkiv Seed Bank — this is a very heavy loss not only for the agricultural sector, but also for ours. My colleagues and I usually use Jelitto seeds. There are also several European companies that produce fairly reliable, high-germination seeds - both pure and mixed. Therefore, you can already start. The technology itself has shown itself to be stable.

PM: In the description of your experiment, there is a mention that one of the experimental plots was dug up in the spring by volunteers who did not recognize cultivated plants in the seedlings and decided that the weeds should be destroyed. Won't new street plantings become victims of such mistakes? After all, society has developed stereotypes about what a city flower bed should look like.

G. G .: It is necessary, of course, to inform people that this area will become a decorative meadow. In the first season, she will not reveal her qualities to the full extent. Yes, it will bloom, but rather weakly, so it can be disappointing. The peak of decorativeness is the second, third and subsequent years. Yes, the same Baikal slomolnitsa and cottonwood will bloom in the first year, but echinacea will not. Therefore, the territory must be fenced with at least cords and an information board with explanations must be installed. In Europe, they do so: first of all, they put up information boards. If you explain to people the perspective and importance of such grasslands for the ecosystem as a whole, they treat them with care.

Naturalistic plantings in Pete Udolph's garden in late autumn. Photo: Piet Oudolf

Psychology of victory

One of the most life-affirming symbols of world culture is grass and flowers, stubbornly pushing their way through cobblestones, trash, and chaos. The opinion that the issue of greening cities in the war and post-war period is out of time is deeply mistaken, since the quality of the environment has a strong impact on psychological health.

"Gardens simultaneously soothe and stimulate all five senses. Even a small corner of the garden can become an island of peace that can neutralize the fatigue of city life and satisfy our desire for contact with the natural world," writes Sue Stewart-Smith, an eminent psychologist and avid gardener, in the book "Garden Therapy. How to get rid of weeds in your head."

And recently, the charity The Lemon Tree discovered the value of this impact when it started planting gardens in Syrian refugee camps. Although food supplies were much needed, about 70% of the plants the refugees chose to grow were flowers: so great was the need for people to bring beauty to their surroundings.

Landscape designer Hanna Galagan is sure that decorative meadows are not just one of the elements of landscaping, today they are a solution to a whole set of urban problems. Wartime will only accelerate the transition to sustainable meadow plantings as an alternative to excessive lawns and annual beds.

 

/The material is part of a special topic "Chaos and reconstruction. The future against war"/

 

 

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