Sharing the knowledge

By Gene Dillman

NZ Gardens Trust member and creator of the Urban Jungle, Mark van Kaathoven, presented to the 11th World Green Infrastructure Conference at the University of Auckland on 4 September.  He talked about his creative use of green waste to reduce landfill, restore healthy soil dynamics and to protect against drought and flood. 

His subtropical garden and the public spaces of the adjoining streetscape and local parks served to illustrate the effectiveness of his techniques and to the enhancement of biodiversity and to fostering unique, resilient ecosystems. 

On 5 September the gardens played host to the delegates from all over the world.  They found much of what had been discussed at the conference in terms of green infrastructure (roof gardens, garden walls) transcended by Mark’s creative planting of epiphytes, layering in trees and use of sun and heat tolerant species for a true garden on a roof as opposed to planted blocks of substrate for the industrial concept of roof gardens.  Many confessed that the experience challenged and changed the ways they think about green infrastructure.

A view of The Urban Jungle from above

As a result of this experience Mark will be presenting at the International Climate Adaptation Research Institute’s More Climate Resilient Cities 2024 Conference in Bratislava, Slovakia, in October.  He hopes to stimulate urban adoption of his ideas to decrease the effects of flooding in populated areas, restore natural soil/water relationships.  His techniques foster more biodiversity which offers a greater chance of adapting to and with climate change than many of the current ideas of urban landscaping which tend to use monocultures of a fixed number of tree and turf species.

Another aspect of Mark’s approach is to work with community members, organisations and private enterprise to support the public space transformations.  He has found this necessary to circumvent some of the barriers posed by outdated council policy.  By engaging with stakeholders such as the residents’ association and the local boards and private citizens he has a supportive collective which has helped nurture this new way of approaching Auckland’s green spaces.  The NZ Gardens Trust has offered crucial support at a number of points along this journey and deserves recognition for this.

As more and more interest around the world in ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) issues surfaces this is a great opportunity for us all to embrace these concepts and to promote them to our domestic and international visitors.   More and more visitors will want and demand to see the clean and green New Zealand marketed overseas. By adopting methods which decrease carbon expenditure, increase carbon sequestration, restore soils and protect the hydrologic cycle our gardens can be great sources of inspiration and learning for all. 

A view down the planted footpaths