While on leave in Wales recently, I came across the Porth Eirias Business Centre on Colwyn Bay beach. Shortly after demolishing a genuinely nice but very pricey ice cream with the kids, I was drawn to wander up onto the roof of the building to check out the sea view and walk through what I now know is an educational roof garden, celebrating the unique and diverse coastal flora of the local area.
In stark contrast to the new promenade, the centre’s modernist architecture and the manmade beach (that I later discovered is engineered by the same company that built Palm Island in Dubai), the roof garden’s small but striking islands of green and gold planting is comprised of locally occurring coastal species.
This got me thinking about one of my fundamental design tenets, which I’ve lived by since cutting my teeth in the profession over 20 years ago.
That tenet is: ‘wherever suitable and applicable, use UK native species to form the structure of any planting scheme, be it commercial or domestic.’
This approach seems obvious to me and is my default starting point when looking at planting schemes, but as I carried on up and over the centre’s roof terrace, I also wondered if the diverse spectrum of clients we work with and the users of the landscapes we design, are aware of the broad range of reasons why this is the case, beyond the obvious fact that native species are more readily available, more robust and more affordable?
Here are my top ten reasons to support that tenet. What do you think?
- Native plants are inherently suited to local weather conditions and therefore require less costly and environmentally damaging watering.
- Native plants are already attuned to local soil conditions and will therefore thrive without the need for additional fertilizers and synthetic supplements.
- Native plants have evolved to co-exist with or have developed natural defences against pests and diseases, so do not require the application of pesticides and synthetic chemical treatments to protect them from disease.
- Native plants are deep rooted and can therefore assist with soil stabilisation, prevent overland runoff through the storage and slow release of flood water; and in combination, prevent erosion.
- Native plants provide habitat and food sources for birds and pollinating insects such as bees, flies, moths, and butterflies; together with providing shelter and food for many small mammals, such as dormice and squirrels.
- Native plants require less management and maintenance and can therefore reduce pollution and energy consumption by eliminating the need for mowing, cutting and the use of other powered, mechanical equipment.
- Native plants like Oak and Field Maple, can pull and store excess carbon and particulates from the atmosphere, thus improving air quality and combating climate change, whilst also providing oxygen.
- Using native plants promotes biodiversity and stewardship of our unique, natural heritage. Specifying native plant species is an opportunity to re-naturalise and assist in the creation of diverse habitats currently in decline.
- Most native plants are not invasive and will allow other plants to happily grow alongside them, thus avoiding the occurrence of damaging monocultures.
- The specification of green spaces that are uniquely native to their location promotes contextually distinctive placemaking; the experience of which brings greater appreciation and awareness of our environment, which is hugely beneficial for health and well-being.
