Reviewed by Elaine Fraser-Gausden, the3Growbags.com
In this fascinating book, Mark Lane explores how our gardens will look in the future, and the technologies being developed that are already being used in many areas of horticulture.
His journey into horticulture is relevant in that the themes of accessibility, inclusivity and flexibility are strong messages throughout. From a degree in art history, he developed a love of landscape architecture and eventually became the Publishing Director for the Royal Institute of British Architects. A terrible car accident resulted in a year’s rehabilitation in hospital, a wheelchair, and a change of career to garden design and thence to garden broadcasting.
Early in the book, he acknowledges that there is a balance to be struck between the human element involved in horticulture and the SMART systems that will increasingly be on hand to streamline land management of all kinds. All the way through, the challenges of climate change are considered in relation to the ideas now at our fingertips to help us. He provides dozens of examples – how geo-location tools are helping to reduce fuel consumption and waste, for instance, or soil- and weather- sensors are informing planting plans.
The development of Smart Cities in various places all over the globe (Copenhagen, Seoul, Amsterdam, Barcelona…) shows how technology, including AI, can aid in finding sustainable energy solutions, better waste management, and more efficiency in monitoring and climate-change decision-making. Land scarcity, vertical planting, shared green spaces, community-based composting initiatives etc. are all examined. He shows us that there is already a GREAT DEAL of work being done world-wide on these critically important sciences.
‘Resilience’ is a word repeated throughout the book. As our weather patterns become more unpredictable, Mark Lane considers the ways in which we can build strength and sustainability into our gardening practices. This might be from diverse planting where biodiversity results in fewer pests and diseases, Xeriscape gardens in which climate-adapted plants are used in water-efficient planting designs, or the use of native plants which are adapted to climatic changes.
The tone of the book is largely positive, though he doesn’t shy away from the challenges we face in the future – including the dangers of unreliable data-collecting and the difficulties of the continuous adaptation needed to face the deepest impacts of climate-change. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if in 300 years, we have a ‘greener, healthier world’ as he says, but oh boy, we have got a lot of work to do yet!
The section that dealt with space horticulture, while interesting, felt more fanciful. I was fascinated by all the ongoing studies on how plants are communicating with each other (allelopathy) and the possibilities of using this data to improve our own husbandry – for instance how it might lead us to finding the right plants for restoring degraded ecosystems.
This is an exhaustively-researched and very thoughtful little book. Given the huge amount of factual information it contains, there was a danger that we might lose sight of the therapeutic effects of gardening on humankind. But we don’t. His love of plants and nature (‘biophilia’) shines through the text, and I would happily recommend this book to anyone interested in how we are going to tackle the huge horticultural challenges of the future.
