Gardens - Homo Suburian's link to nature

GARDENS – A VITAL LINK

Where do you live? What do you see in your daily environment? Does much of it consist of organic materials or living entities (apart from your fellow humans)? For many of us the days starts with a brief time at home, then into the car or other transportation to another building and later back home again. Some enlightened companies have started providing outdoor spaces for their employees to take breaks in, but this may be the only sight of plants, perhaps moving water or grass and some open sky in the whole day for many people, then perhaps the week, and as the weeks stack up its easy to get used to zero contact with the natural world for perhaps a year.

Maybe you’re thinking so what? This is no big deal – we live in modern cities, no problem. The countryside is muddy anyway! I wouldn’t blame you for thinking that because every generation has strived to detach itself more and more from our relationship with nature, to leave behind reliance on seasonal conditions, adverse effects of whether, competition from other animals – even germs and viruses. Civilisation craves stability and safety. Those thoughts might sound a bit abstracted from the city life description, but the situation can be seen even in the simplest example; we don’t want the seasonal weather to make our streets and pavements periodically muddy – so we cover our environment in concrete and tarmac, we don’t use natural materials for our buildings very much so increasingly we are surrounded by glass, steel and....yep more concrete! These materials have qualities that are the opposite to organic materials, they are cold, hard, rigid, non porous acoustically reflective and tonally flat.

It is my belief that continual exposure to an environment made up of these materials is de humanising people, without considering the added effects of pollution both aural and in the air, crowding, media bombardment etc. I am convinced that subtle changes in body chemistry are caused by the above on top of other metropolitan stresses such as changes to circadian rhythmns (sleep), and EMR proliferation, and are causing serious illnesses. These effects are most prevalent in big cities but are present also in suburban areas where proximity to industrial sites may have further negative impacts. I know many people who find the conditions of city life difficult, being are acutely aware of them every day and only staying there because of work or family commitments. I know others who are aware of the unhealthy aspects of city living but enjoy the cultural ‘buzz’ enough to stay there, I was one myself having lived in one of the biggest cities in the world for most of my life – but would not return now if you paid me. I also know people who don’t like to leave the city and who have no love of nature unless it is perhaps the annual visit to a beach.
    
It is clear that just as people take to city life in varying degrees just as they appreciate nature differently. Looking at this situation from a gardener’s point of view it is easy to see that some of us appreciate the importance of plants, some have a passion for them, and some completely take them for granted – not noticing them in their day to day environment or appreciating their importance in the global food chain. I associate this with becoming detached from the natural world – having been freed of the need to feed ourselves and moving into big city life, lessening our awareness of agriculture, making the experience of a meadow or woodland something that requires a journey by car. The different cultural regard for plants is an anthropological phenomenon that is influenced by wealth and geography, but also by the media.

Our media driven lives and aspirations often give us the illusion that there is no time to go for walks, do some gardening, or just to sit and enjoy the sight of a tree swaying in the wind or the scent of a rose. This is where I believe gardens are becoming a necessity, and not ordinary gardens but ones that romanticise nature in a powerful and evocative way. If we make gardens that repeat the suburban norm filled with similar features, plants and materials they will not attract the ‘city numbed’ out into them. Why should they be interested if it looks the same as the ones on T.V. I feel it’s time for garden designers to rise to the challenge of re connecting ‘Homo suburbians’ back to their roots, we must reach beyond the tame clichés that have proliferated since the 50’s when everyone had war gardens, to do this I believe we must look at our own roots in pure, non specific design.