New Book Out
$45
Paperback, 228pp, full colour, 235 x 285mm
ISBN 978-1-877257-95-7
In this lavishly illustrated book, 20 of New Zealand’s top landscape architects and designers offer their wisdom and advice on the subject of landscaping with native plants.
These personal narratives showcase some of our country’s most beautiful outdoor environments, from private gardens to public recreation land, urban and industrial spaces, and even farmland.
Editors Ian Spellerberg and Michele Frey, and photographer John Maillard were behind the 2008 publication Living with Natives: New Zealanders talk about their love of native plants.
Once again, John’s stunning photographs capture the uniqueness and splendour of each location, from Kaeo in the Far North to Queenstown in the south.
Contributors include Dennis Scott, Alan Titchener, Xanthe White and many other landscape architects and garden designers spend their lives transforming featureless blocks of land into welcoming spaces, evoking the special character of New Zealand.
In this book they communicate their vision and passion, their experiences – good and bad, and the things they have learned the hard way.
Let their experience help guide you in creating a native haven in your own back yard.
About the editors and photographer:
Ian Spellerberg is Professor of Nature Conservation and Director of the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation at Lincoln University. He is president of the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network, and is passionate about raising the profile of New Zealand’s natural heritage.
Michele Frey is a Recreation and Environmental Planning Consultant based in Napier. She is involved in a number of reserve restoration projects, and undertakes parks and reserves planning for a range of public and private organisations.
John Maillard is the programme leader of Photography at CPIT, Christchurch. He has been a photographer in Africa, the US, New Zealand and Britain for over two decades. His specialisation in documenting landscapes and people has taken him on assignments around the world.
Good article below click on the link for the original:-
Time to widen debate on plantings
By ROSEMARIE SMITHIt's official: Christchurch will be rebuilt as a garden city – or as Mayor Bob Parker puts it, a "city in the middle of a garden".
That's hardly a surprising outcome of huge community consultation. But getting a consensus on what kind of garden may be more difficult, with discussion already lapsing into the old native versus exotic argument.
Protagonists are trading insults. "The eco-fundamental obsession with planting natives is born of an anti-introduced phobia that evolves into a hatred of anything that they decree not to be indigenous," thundered one writer in The Press last month.
That "anti-native" ideology is driven by the "deep-set Imperialist `control of nature' approach to landscape", retorted a voice from the other side.
"Please, no more cabbage trees!" begged another.
Anything written just now with even a hint of criticism of the suffering people of Christchurch needs to be approached with delicacy. But this argument existed pre-quakes, and while it flourishes elsewhere in New Zealand, it seems to have always been particularly acrimonious in the city that has bought so heavily into an eminently challengeable historical identity as exclusively English.
So we need to watch this debate with special sympathy, noting that extreme views are always suggestive that something else is going on that's got little to do with the supposed topic at all. One voice taking a different tack is that of Ian Spellerberg, professor of nature conservation and director of the Isaac Centre for Nature Conservation at Lincoln University.
Native versus exotics is not the issue, he wrote in an opinion piece for The Press. (And this from a man who cheerfully admits to having roses in his home garden, and is a vege gardener of some skill.) The issue is the conservation and sustainable use of nature, particularly ecological communities. Plants have evolved as part of a diverse community in which there are many interactions between all kinds of organisms, including those in the soil, and it is those interactions that support native wildlife and provide many ecological and economic benefits.
Spellerberg describes the impact on his thinking from the experience of living overseas for many years.
Like many an expat, he had fond memories of New Zealand, and could visit special places in his imagination. He also delighted in seeing New Zealand plants as prized specimens in English and European gardens.
The reality on his return was a shock, with so much environmental modification, so many native species either lost or endangered, and so many of the introduced species invasive and costing millions of dollars to combat.
He also found that many young people had little idea of their indigenous vegetation. "They think natives include macrocarpa and lupins," he says.
Ignorance of ecological consequences has been a major factor in this change. But it is also hard to promote native plant communities when many exotics are so well known and compete for our attention. Lack of research on natives has been a source of self-fulfilling conservatism, where plants are selected on the basis of what has been used before, and on availability in nurseries.
Exotics are widely used as street trees, for example, because a lot is known about what will withstand harsh urban conditions, like London plane trees.
Conversely, we still don't know much about the potential of New Zealand natives, especially the cultivars, which Spellerberg says he is happy to see used for amenity plantings.
He resolved to do his bit through writing, and not just for academics.
One result has been a series of books for gardeners showing the diversity of colour, texture and form that is available in our native plants.
With so much choice and so many benefits, why would we not use natives as the default position, he says.
And despite the vehemence of the opposition – "I've been called a lot of names" – he now sees encouraging changes as more and more people see garden plants in wider environmental terms, becoming interested in biodiversity and sustainability.
Spellerberg describes his ultimate hopes for a national centre for native plants, rather like the Eden Project in Cornwall, hosting research and education, plus shops and workshops with all possible connections with industry and the arts.
There would be a pharmacy, restaurant, shops and galleries and more. "That's my dream," he says.
» Professor Spellerberg can be contacted at: Ian.Spellerberg@lincoln.ac.nz, or Lincoln University, PO Box 84, Lincoln 7647.
- The Southland Times
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