Author Archives: Maike van Stiphout

7 edible shrubs for improving urban biodiversity

3. Amelanchier or Juneberry (Amelanchier lamarckii)

Plant an Amelanchier or two and you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it sooner. Adored by wildlife for its mass of flowers and juicy blueberry-like fruit, this gem of a shrub adds an elegant beauty to every urban landscape, large or small, all year round. The Amelanchier’s characteristic layered, open structure adds a distinct aesthetic feature to the garden, either pruned as a small tree (it grows up to 10 metres high) or planted as a row of shrubs. 

The Amelanchierhas its roots in America (where it’s also called Serviceberry) but has been naturalised in the Netherlands for centuries, such that the Krentenboom, as it’s known here, is unmissable in the Dutch landscape. In the wild Amelanchier lamarckii is abundant in parts of the country such as Drenthe where special forest hikes take in the best locations to spot Amelanchiers in bloom. 

To plant an Amelanchier is to celebrate the seasons, each season showing off a different, equally spectacular side to this hardy deciduous shrub. With its branches laden with large off-white blossoms dotted with copper-coloured new leaves, the sight of an Amelanchier in bloom is to be savoured – it’s quite breathtaking, especially against a blue sky. The whole shrub becomes a magnet for bees, bumblebees, wasps who definitely wouldn’t want to miss this.

The Krentenboom takes its name from the edible fruit krenten (meaning currants)that starts to ripen in summer. Historically, they were dried and used instead of real Corinth grape currants for baking. Look for the clusters of fruit as they ripen from red into deep purple, but not all at once. You’ll have to compete with birds such as finches, thrushes and woodpeckers who flock to Amelanchiers to devour the irresistibly juicy fruit. Every year, they’ll remember when it’s berry time, meaning your garden will truly become a bird paradise! Krentencan be used in place of blueberries, they’re excellent for jam due to their high pectin content and if the birds haven’t beaten you to a decent harvest, make a pie! Or if they did, remember to plant a few more shrubs next year. 

Equally spectacular in autumn, the Amelanchier lights up the garden when its leaves transform into fiery tones of copper, orange, yellow and red, the sight of which gives a welcome sense of warmth as the temperatures start to plunge. 

7 x edible shrubs for improving urban biodiversity

2. Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus Mas)

Cultivated for millennia for its wood and culinary uses, Cornelian cherry dogwood (Cornus mas) might just become your new best friend in the garden. It’s best known for its delicate yellow flowers and edible olive-shaped fruit, both of which are equally cherished by people and wildlife alike. In the Netherlands, it’s rare in the wild, limited to the southernmost parts of the country. 

When the garden starts to awake from the cold in early spring, the blossoming of Cornus Masis eagerly awaited – especially for the bumblebees as it’s one of their first food sources available after the long winter. Masses of fine bright yellow clusters of flowers covering this bushy shrub or small tree bring an instant cheer, especially on sunny days when the yellow blooms contrast strikingly with the deep blue sky. An added bonus is that it blooms for several weeks, meaning more time to enjoy this stunning shrub.

Cornus mas is also the host plant for moths including Eupoecilia ambiguellaand Antispila treitschkiella, -metallellaand –petryi. While moths aren’t as prominent as butterflies, they’re important as pollinators and a food source for birds and other wildlife. 

Like all dogwoods, Cornus masmakes a show of autumn colours when its glossy green leaves turn vibrant shades of burgundy tinged with purple. Look for bunches of ripening elongated ruby red fruit called cornels hiding between the colourful foliage. Birds adore them. When ripe, they’re soft and fall easily off the stalk. Their tartness lends itself well to jams and jellies but surprisingly they can also be brined and eaten like olives. As the pits were used as rosary beads, Cornus masis often found in monastery and cloister gardens. 

Cornus Mas stands the test of time, some growing to be over 100 years old! The Romans called it Cornus, meaning horn. As a tough hardwood, it’s been prized since ancient times particularly for spears, wheel spokes and tool handles but also shepherd’s staffs. 

It’s an easy friend in the garden as a hedge or standalone feature, thriving in sun and partial shade and most soil conditions – although it has a preference for chalky soils. It doesn’t mind drought nor wind and gets on well with most plants making it ideal as part of a diverse urban landscape.

7 x edible shrubs for improving urban biodiversity

In these blog posts, Maike van Stiphout (landscape architect and author of First Guide to Nature Inclusive Design) and Jeanne Tan (architecture writer and content editor) delve into the world of shrubs, sharing the beauty of this under appreciated group of plants which are ideal for urban nature, urban biodiversity and urban food forests. First up is Sloe famed for its ethereal white blossoms and its plum-like fruit. Supporting a wide variety of wildlife, the low maintenance Sloe shrub or hedge is a firm favourite for improving urban biodiversity all year round.

  1. Sloe or Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa)

Native to the Netherlands, Sloe is an ancient shrub that supports a wide variety of wildlife, making it one of our favourites to plant in urban landscapes to improve biodiversity all year round. It’s famed for its delicate white blossoms and edible dark purple fruit called sloes. Low maintenance Sloe shrubs suit rather wild landscapes and gardens and are excellent as hedges. It thrives in full sun but can tolerate some shade.

After long Dutch winters, a blossoming Sloe in March is a spectacle to celebrate – spring is on the way! They transform in early spring from a thick mass of thorny branches into ephemeral clouds of delicate white blossoms. Importantly, at this time when there’s little food available, Sloe blossoms provide precious nectar and pollen for bees, bumblebees and butterflies. After the blossoms have been pollinated, the fruit appears. 

Later in the season Sloe becomes a favourite foodplant for the caterpillars of moths and butterflies, in particular the black hairstreak (Satyrium pruni) which lay their eggs almost exclusively here. This butterflie is extremely rare in The Netherlands.

Sloe provides an ideal nesting habitat for birds – especially with caterpillars, an important food source, within easy reach. Although Sloe is deciduous, its dense, thorny branches offer shelter to birds and other wildlife against urban predators all year round.

Come autumn, the small oval leaves turn orange and the clusters of fruit ripen into a rich dark purple – a beautiful sight. Resembling mini plums, sloes are the predecessor of our cultivated plums. Try to spot birds such as thrushes feasting on them. If you’re going to harvest some, don’t be tempted to eat them straight away – they’re astringent and tart. Traditionally sloes are prized for making jam and wine and infusing liqueur such as Slivovitsj.

Building with Nature perspectives

A new publication about Building with nature is published by Rius (Research in Urbanism Series), TU Delft. This publication offers an overview of the latest cross-disciplinary developments in the field of Building with Nature for the protection of coastal regions.

Drawing from the experience of DS landscape architects, four actualized projects and two student master theses of the Academy of Architecture illustrate the challenges, opportunities and benefits that building with nature presents. These cases highlight four important lessons for designing with nature in rural and urban landscapes

Publication: https://www.rius.ac/index.php/rius/issue/view/10/10

The end of the stone gardens in Baden-Würthemberg

The stone garden increases the climat problems such as heatstress and stormwater floods in the neighbourhoods. Since a few days a stone garden is forbidden in Baden-Würthemberg. Their garden-legislation (1995) prescribed that paving is only allowed where it is really needed. The recent garden trend to replace plants by small pebbles was not foreseen and not stopped. The film explains to the inhabitants why the new law is made and how to change the garden.

film in: https://www.swr.de/swraktuell/baden-wuerttemberg/schottergaerten-ministerien-uneins-100.html

4 features for succesfull wildlife-inclusive urban design

(Landscape and Urban planning/Volume 200, August 2020, Beate Apfelbeck e.a.)

In an urbanizing world there is an increasing priority for making cities nature-inclusive environments. Cities offer places for human-wildlife experiences, and thus for broad societal support of biodiversity conservation. Cities also depend on ecosystem services provided by biodiversity to remain healthy, liveable places. Although biodiversity is frequently addressed in urban green infrastructure plans, it often is not an integral topic in city planning, urban design and housing development. As a result, wildlife-rich urban green is often lacking in those parts of the cities where people live and work. Here, the authors introduce the concept of ‘wildlife-inclusive urban design’ for the built-up area of cities that integrates animal needs into the urban planning and design process. To identify key features that determine the success of wildlife-inclusive urban design, they evaluated lessons learnt from existing best practices. These were collected during an international workshop with architects, landscape practitioners, ecological consultants, conservationists and urban ecologists. in which Maike van Stiphout participated as well.

The authors propose that features of successful wildlife-inclusive urban design projects are:

1) interdisciplinary design teams that involve ecologists early on,

2) consideration of the entire life-cycle of target species,

3) post-occupancy monitoring and evaluation with feedback to communicate best practices

4) stakeholder involvement and participatory approaches.

The authors propose how wildlife-inclusive urban design could be included into the different steps of the urban planning cycle. They conclude that following these principles will facilitate incorporation of wildlife-inclusive urban design into urban planning and design and enable urban environments where humans and animals can thrive in the built-up areas.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0169204619308035?via%3Dihub

The botanical city

authors: Matthew Gandy, Sandra Jasper

Roadside “weeds” and other routinely overlooked aspects to urban nature provide a fascinating glimpse into complex global ecologies and new cultures of nature emerging across the world. This unique collection of essays explores the botanical dimensions of urban space, ranging from scientific efforts to understand the distinctive dynamics of urban flora to the way spontaneous vegetation has inspired artists and writers.
The book comprises five thematic sections: “Histories and taxonomies,” “Botanizing the asphalt,” “The art of urban flora,” “Experiments in non-design,” and “Cartographic imaginations”. The essays explore developments in Berlin, London, Lahore, Tokyo, and many other cities, as well as more philosophical reflections on the meaning of urban nature under the putative shift to the Anthropocene.

Designing for biodiversity in neighbourhoods

What can you do in the urban lay-out and the landscape design in neighbourhoods to make space for wildlife? The Bundesamt für Naturshutz made a hands-on brochure. The brochure is filled with blueprints of neighbourhoods enriched with proposals. The proposals have been discussed with housing corporations and communities. The strategy named AAD – Animal Aided Design, is developed by Thomas Hauck (University Kassel) and Wolfgang Weisser (TU Munchen)

Brochure link: .https://www.bfn.de/fileadmin/BfN/planung/siedlung/Dokumente/AAD_Broschuere.pdf

New York City introduces bill to make glass buildings more bird-friendly

New York has passed a bill that updates the city’s building code with requirements to make new glass structures safer for migratory birds.

New York City Council’s bill requires the surface of new glass buildings rising 75 feet (23 metres) or more – approximately seven storeys – to be patterned to make them more visible to birds.

New York’s chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the American Bird Conservancy, and New York City Audubon all supported the legislation, as reported by CityLab.

The bill includes a set of bird-friendly design and construction guidelines that advise the use of fritted glass – which features ceramic lines or dotted marks on the surface. This adaptation would reduce the transparency of clear glass buildings, making them more visible to birds.

Existing glazed towers are not affected by the new mandate but any renovations are required to comply. New structures built on top of a green roof, no matter the height, must meet new requirements. (21-12-19 Dezeen, Bridged Cogley)

link: https://www.dezeen.com/2019/12/20/new-york-city-bird-bill-glass-buildings/

bird friendly handbook: https://nextcity.nl/downloads/