ISHS Acta Horticulturae 391: Horticulture in Human life, Culture and Environment
HORTICULTURAL ASPECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES IN URBANIZED SOCIETY: THE GARDENS AS A MODEL FOR CARING FOR THE EARTH |
| Author: | M.D. Burchett |
| Keywords: | Environmental horticulture, Landscape ecology, Urban forestry, Sustainable biosphere, Sustainable landscape, Plants and pollution, Urban horticulture, Caring for the earth |
| Abstract:
The history of cultivation and horticulture shows that neither horticulture nor agriculture has always acted as an appropriate model for caring for the earth. Indeed, the growth of agriculture, bringing with it the growth of settlement and urbanization, has unfortunately in the past been associated with environmental transformation and degradation which have become pressing problems of today and the future. However, valuable lessons have been learned during that long history of cultivation, of both broad-acres and the garden. These lessons, together with the ecological studies that have leant so much on the methods developed in the older plant sciences, can now be applied to solving many of the environmental problems of modern urbanized society. The garden can serve as a model of the manner in which we should be caring for the planet. Plants in urban areas are important in ameliorating features or the environment such as temperature, noise and pollution, just as they maintain the balance of life for this earth. Sustainable residential landscape management programs that address the issues of cost/benefit (the economic, environmental and personal cost vs. the economic, environmental, physiological and social benefit) can be used to educate the public regarding world environmental issues in a setting that is local and directly relevant to people. | |
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