F E AT U R E By James Hitchmough and Michael Livingstone
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No fines please New research looks at urban planting directly into deep mineral mulches
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lanting into “stony substrates” became fashionable in Germany as part of the ‘Silbersommer’ pre-designed planting mixes developed by the Arbeitskreis Pflanzenverwendung (study group for plant use and planting design) from the early 2000s. These mixes arose from a long tradition of nature-like designed
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“steppe” planting into dry substrates. The mixes are sold by nurseries who participated in their development, in part a response to the diminution of planting design skills in German landscape architecture. All of these mixes have been evaluated in public spaces throughout Germany for at least 5 years before their release. We were interested in knowing more about how these approaches might
work in the UK climate, where the intervals between rainfall events are much shorter. We set a PhD research team (James Hitchmough as project lead, with Nigel Dunnett and Ross Cameron) and Michael Livingstone as the PhD researcher. Financial support came from Boningale Nurseries and logistical support from the Green Estate Landscape in Sheffield. In collaboration with Nigel and Michael,
