Grounding Woody Meadows

Examining the Application of Horticultural Research into Landscape Design

This article is an excerpt from the original paper published in Landscape Review in November 2023, co-authored by Wendy Walls, Lecturer in Landscape Architectural Design at the Melbourne School of Design, University of Melbourne, and Brent Greene, Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at RMIT University, Melbourne.

The winter blooms of Eucalyptus caesia in the pilot planting at Royal Park, Melbourne, Australia (image by Wendy Walls, 2023).

This paper reviews the application and integration of experimental Woody Meadows horticultural research into landscape design projects in Melbourne, Australia. The Woody Meadows experiments investigate the use of Australian native plants as resilient urban planting. Benefits include reducing labour and financial inputs; maintaining striking visual displays; achieving high vegetation density and diversity; and establishing horticultural outcomes that are climate resilient (especially to the impacts of heat and drought). While the trials have proven successful, the experimental strategies applied through design are often conceived as technical additions rather than integrated elements in broader landscape design agendas.

This paper catalogues Woody Meadows experiments within greater Melbourne to reveal three primary typologies for how research is incorporated in design: ‘pilot and demonstration plantings’, ‘upgrades and renewals’ and ‘design feature’. It also draws on researcher perspectives to discuss the challenges of applying experimental horticultural research to design projects. In looking across the project examples and researcher experience, the study reveals the significance of managing community and professional expectations, alongside the need for strategies that introduce innovative horticultural methods to established design workflows and processes.

Introduction

Woody Meadows are dense naturalistic plantings that are composed of Australian trees and shrubs exclusively. They are maintained through coppicing, a tactic that influences vegetal structural responses (such as re-sprouting and the development of multiple basal stems) and enhances the visual impact of a plant (by encouraging bold aesthetic outcomes and flowering). The first pilot plantings were installed at Melbourne’s Birrarung Marr and Royal Park in 2016. Now more that 24 examples are planted across Australia, covering a total of 6,000 square metres and numbering 40,000 plants from 150 species (Farrell and Bathgate, 2023).

As experimental research, the Woody Meadows project investigates plant selection, installation and maintenance aimed at developing climate resilience (especially to the impacts of heat and drought) with reduced labour and financial inputs while maintaining striking visual outcomes. The ongoing experiments have demonstrated innovative urban planting that celebrates the distinctive material and aesthetic qualities of Australian native vegetation. Despite these outcomes, the Woody Meadows plantings are often confined to sections of designed space and are rarely conceived of as part of larger design project agendas. This separation of aesthetic and maintenance criteria between Woody Meadows and larger spatial design begins to reveal the source of implementation gaps in applying innovative horticultural research to landscape architectural design in Australia’s public realm.

This paper considers these divisions by reviewing the evolution of Woody Meadows plantings applied to the public realm. First, we briefly introduce the research project’s background and ambitions. Second, we review Woody Meadows examples within greater Melbourne and catalogue the degrees to which they are incorporated into a design’s spatial context. Lastly, we draw on conversations with lead researchers, Associate Professors Claire Farrell and John Rayner from the University of Melbourne, who assist in contextualising the complex environmental and cultural conditions that influence the application of Woody Meadows research in design projects.

Cox Reserve in Merri-bek municipality, showing the Woody Meadow edge plantings in contrast to the grass and tree typology of a standard urban park (image by Wendy Walls, 2023).

Background

The Woody Meadows research project began in 2015 as a collaboration between Associate Professors Claire Farrell and John Rayner from the University of Melbourne, the City of Melbourne, the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Cranbourne) and Professor James Hitchmough and Dr Audrey Gerber from the University of Sheffield. While the meadows draw from the University of Sheffield’s experience with naturalistic plantings, the Melbourne-based projects were conceived to respond to the city’s distinctive climatic conditions, notably heat and drought (University of Melbourne, 2021). The research team shortlisted 21 plants from an original list of 1,200 Australian species, including cultivars of small trees and shrubs, for the initial pilot.

Selection was influenced by two principal performances: a plant’s ability to survive without irrigation (beyond establishment) and to resprout or develop multiple basal stems after being maintained through coppicing. Tube stock, which included Acacia acinacea, Eucalyptus latens, Eucalyptus caesia, Alyogyne huegeli and Astartea fascicularis, among other species, was planted into 200 millimetres of scoria substrate, which provided welldrained and weed-free soil conditions to promote establishment. Plants were then arranged as a vegetation community of three layers, named base (less than 1 metre), bump (1–2 metres) and emergent (more than 2 metres). This layering structure replicates ‘shrub-based natural ecosystems’ and provides ‘visual interest’ to the public (University of Melbourne, 2021).

The pilot planting was considered successful. Most plants resprouted after coppicing, achieving dense vegetation layers with flowering throughout the year. The substrate scoria reduced weed growth and maintenance costs. These outcomes were achieved even though the planting received no irrigation and less than 2 millimetres of rainfall in one summer month (Backhouse, 2016; Bolge, 2017; City of Melbourne, 2020; University of Melbourne, 2021). These results were later made publicly available as design guidelines and comprehensive plant lists (Backhouse, 2016; Kenefick and Farrell, 2021; Martin, 2017; University of Melbourne, 2021).

The Woody Meadow addition on the Bell to Moreland section of the elevated rail project (image by Wendy Walls, 2023).

Subsequently, the Woody Meadows research approach has been applied as new urban plantings to suburban parks, roadside verges, streetscapes and new landscape projects. While the range of Woody Meadows projects and applications is much wider than the plantings covered in the next section, many of these outcomes are not yet well documented. The selection of projects for this study is limited to reviewing the more established examples, which better illustrate the distinctions in how horticultural research has been applied to varying urban sites and landscape projects.

To read the full article, including tables and researcher perspectives, click here.

This article is shared with permission under a Creative Commons licence.