Messy Landscapes.

Sta­tus Quo deci­sions on land­scape, lead to a reduc­tion of bio­di­ver­sity in the built environment–but it doesn’t have to be this way.  Key choices of species and main­te­nance rou­tines can enhance wildlife and human con­nec­tiv­ity as to increase bio­di­ver­sity.   More and more unin­formed land devel­op­ers, busi­ness own­ers, prop­erty own­ers, and the eco­nomic iner­tia of “what works” leads to more and more habi­tat loss, high fre­quency main­te­nance (weekly) and upkeep fees.  Despite the dom­i­nance of neat­ness as a form of the care aes­thetic, “messy” land­scapes look attrac­tive if peo­ple know the eco­log­i­cal func­tion of what they are see­ing, or if the land­scape con­text indi­cates that the messy look is inten­tional.₁

Ecosys­tem Restoration

Ecosys­tems are com­plex, frag­ile, resilient,seasonal and can offer ser­vices usu­ally ben­e­fit­ing both humans and non-humans.  Eco­log­i­cal ser­vices include pro­duc­tion of oxy­gen from car­bon diox­ide, pol­li­na­tion of plants, and count­less other process that humans have not yet been able to recre­ate alone.

Ecosys­tem restora­tion is ideal for clients of land­scape archi­tects, com­mer­cial prop­erty own­ers and com­pa­nies who pay for rou­tine main­te­nance of turf grass with mow­ing, edg­ing, and blow­ing of grass clip­pings.  These main­te­nance rou­tines use gasoline/carbon emis­sions, cre­ate non-habitat areas,  pro­duce air pol­lu­tion with blow­ers, and cre­ate an non-sustainable “aes­thetic” linked to the seduc­tion of the Amer­i­can lawn.  Often these mowed lawns areas are never used beyond look­ing pretty.

Native and Inva­sive species

When con­sid­er­ing what species to plant you can con­sult your regional wildlife cen­ter, wild­flower cen­ter, or parks and wildlife man­age­ment orga­ni­za­tion.  Also regional seed banks have for­mu­las of seed mix­tures that can be planted to cre­ate wild­flow­ers or an arti­fi­cial prairie.  Tall­grass restora­tion can elim­i­nate mow­ing and weekly main­te­nance while attract­ing more desir­able species.

Small Scale Land­scape Restoration

Wild­scapes and back­yard wildlife habi­tats are ideal for res­i­den­tial prop­erty own­ers and home own­ers. With the inten­tion of link­ing patches and cor­ri­dors of habi­tats we can cre­ate a net­work of habi­tats.  These can allow dis­placed species to once again have the abil­ity to inhabit the ‘orig­i­nal’ territories.

Aren’t you tired of just see­ing grack­les, star­lings, black birds, crows, pigeons, and buzzards?–these are com­mon signs of a harsh urban landscape–and only these most adapted birds can sur­vive.  Pro­vid­ing food, water, hid­ing places/cover, native plants and chem­i­cal reduc­tion can be the steps needed to cre­ate a back­yard wildlife habi­tat and rein­tro­duce new and desired species into your area.

Code com­pli­ance

Var­i­ous ways exist to work around the any infrac­tions or fines that may come with a per­ceived “unkept” look­ing lawn.  The cer­ti­fied back­yard habi­tat pro­gram allows home own­ers to cre­ate a cer­ti­fied wild­scape, that cre­ates habi­tat for birds and small wildlife, and insects (from the National Wildlife Fed­er­a­tion).  This can save a home owner hun­dreds of dol­lars a year in mow­ing fees and cre­ate a more pleas­ant and inspir­ing landscape.

Apply­ing for a vari­ance to the code of keep­ing your lawn cut, can solve any city fees and com­plaints by oth­ers. This can be done by sim­ply call­ing your code com­pli­ance office and inquir­ing about com­mon infrac­tions before it hap­pens to you.

Secu­rity and Functionalism

With many com­pa­nies wor­ried about secu­rity, in terms of some­one “hid­ing in the bushes,”  solar land­scape light­ing can be used to illu­mi­nate park­ing areas.  There are sus­tain­able options that cost lit­tle upfront and keep util­ity bills down, all to cre­ate a beau­ti­ful land­scapes that are MORE func­tional than the ubiq­ui­tous mowed lawns.  Grow­ing food for humans is a way that increases func­tion­al­ity and cre­ates a direct human link to the imme­di­ate envi­ron­ment, as well as any active human inter­ven­tion that increases bio­di­ver­sity.  Novel land­scape designs that improve eco­log­i­cal qual­ity may not be appre­ci­ated or main­tained if rec­og­niz­able land­scape lan­guage that com­mu­ni­cates human inten­tion is not part of [that] land­scape. ₂

Bio­philic Landscapes

Inte­gra­tion of human and non-human habi­tats can cre­ate a more pleas­ant, inter­est­ing habi­tat that sig­nals a love of life or liv­ing sys­tems, rec­og­niz­ing deep affil­i­a­tions humans have with nature that are rooted in our biology.

Cita­tions

1. Nas­sauer, Joan Iver­son. 1988. The Aes­thet­ics of Hor­ti­cul­ture: Neat­ness as a Form of Care.  Amer­i­can Soci­ety for Hor­ti­cul­tural Sci­ence. HortScience, vol. 23, no. 6, Decem­ber 1988, pp. 973–977 <http://hdl.handle.net/2027.42/49345>

2. Nas­sauer, Joan Iver­son. 1995. Messy ecosys­tems, orderly frames.  Land­scape Jour­nal [0277–2426] vol:14 iss:2 pg:161 –170

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