Diarmuid Gavin: Why green space matters in urban centres

It runs industry training workshops and awards programmes, and anyone in Ireland with an interest in garden and landscape design, or just gardens in general, who’d like to become involved in its activities is welcome to join.

Its big annual event is a seminar where a panel of gardeners, designers and ecologists from this country and abroad are invited to give talks and workshops aimed at and inspiring thoughts and debate.

This year’s event takes place in a month’s time, on Saturday, February 24, at the Crowne Plaza Dublin Airport Hotel, and has been curated around the theme of ‘Space To Grow’. It will examine how our gardens and open spaces can help us achieve a ‘liveable future’.

As urbanisation intensifies with so many people around the globe moving from rural areas to cities and suburbs, it’s inevitable that garden sizes in newly built housing will get smaller, if indeed individual plots are provided at all.

This is a challenge in an era where it’s recognised that outdoor spaces have real potential to have a positive effect on our lives, along with supporting biodiversity and mitigating the effects of climate change.

The seminar, therefore, will provide an opportunity for those invested in the subject to hear of the experiences of green space makers from around the globe who share concerns about how gardens in urban sites are valued in our fast-changing environments.

Among the speakers is Jo Wakelin, a horticulturist, plantswoman and designer travelling to Dublin from her garden in Central Otago, New Zealand. Wakelin is passionate about low-impact, environmental-conscious landscape design. Her dry garden in Central Otago flourishes without any watering and has been featured in several books, including Wild — The Naturalistic Garden. She believes that the time has come to rethink our use of water in landscaping.

Ton Muller is head landscape designer at the Municipality of Amsterdam. His work revolves around public urban landscapes that are tuned to nature and link themes such as biodiversity, city climate and water management.

Maintenance and succession are key elements of his planting designs and, in his public spaces in Amsterdam, he’s pioneering new habitat-based approaches to planting within the built environment.

John Little argues against long-standing protocol within public space and horticulture. He suggests structural complexity and topography is overlooked in landscape design and is more important than plant choice for driving biodiversity.

Since starting the Grass Roof Company in 1998, he has designed and built more than 400 small, green-roof buildings, combining deep biodiverse green roofs with walls of breeding and hibernation space.

Little believes that we must invest in gardeners rather than more infrastructure. After 18 years caring for the green space on a social housing estate (Clapton Park) in London, he has written a sustainable grounds maintenance contract that does just that.

Tickets to the seminar cost €110 for members, €140 for non-members and €60 for students. ​ glda.ie

Plant of the week

Iris unguicularis, Algerian iris This little winter gem is from North Africa and thrives in poor soil — the base of a south-facing stone wall is ideal. They can take a few years to establish into clumps so patience is required. Although they are hardy, their blossoms can shrivel in frost so your best bet is to cut the flowers as they emerge and bring them indoors where you can admire their beautiful petals and enjoy the sweet scent. Annual maintenance is minimal — just a tidy-up trim of dead foliage is required. ‘Mary Barnard’ is my favourite cultivar with intense purple petals.

Reader Q&A

My garden is by the sea and I want to plant some shrubs at the end for privacy — nothing too tall as I don’t want to block my sea view, and something not too fussy that doesn’t need much maintenance. Pauline

In this situation, you need salt-and-wind-tolerant shrubs. As you are looking for a low-maintenance solution, I’d recommend Escallonia, a flowering evergreen that will reach between 5ft and 8ft high at maturity and will only need an annual clip at most to keep it trim. Fuchsia, hebe, olearia and pittosporum are also suitable.

Submit your gardening questions to Diarmuid via his Instagram @diarmuidgavin using the hashtag #weekendgarden