The Grasslands Garden at Horniman Museum in South London, were designed by James to celebrate critically threatened, wild landscapes. His extensive research explores how wild landscapes can inform urban green space design to create stunning wild flower plantings that not only look good but also support local wildlife. The beds focus on African and North American planting, a large proportion of the plants used were produced by the Horniman garden team.
Soil is often a problem in planting, especially when extensive resources for weeding are not available. Increasingly in Germany for example, standard urban soil mixes for herbaceous planting are mainly just grit, and there is a good evidence base that this significantly reduces weed management costs, and enables long term persistence of plantings. Deep gravel mulches are not however only about reducing labour costs, such materials also create radically different conditions and allow the cultivation of plants that would otherwise be marginal in soil, so there are new creative possibilities too. This event at The Horniman explores the interaction between maintenance cost, and creative possibilities using not only the example of James’ experience at the Horniman Museum but also with plantings across the world, for example in China and Australia. This film includes illustrated lectures on both the African and American planting, as well as James walking around the beds discussing the plants with the group.