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Polycolture and Landscape
The interrelationship between garden and wilderness allows us to see the garden as structuring the place, not as an object placed on an existing scenario
When you build a wall, think of what you leave outside” Italo Calvino, The Baron in the Trees
Like many regions, the Karst is suffering from urban sprawl due to the rapid expansion of towns and villages, characterised by low-density housing, single-occupancy zoning and increasing reliance on the private car for transport. Local policies can also facilitate expansion by making it convenient and profitable to buy land in the suburbs. More generally, land use regulations can fail to implement key requirements to reduce land consumption.
Urban sprawl is associated with increased energy consumption, pollution and traffic congestion, as well as a decline in community distinctiveness and cohesion. In addition, by increasing the physical and environmental "footprint" of metropolitan areas, the phenomenon leads to the destruction of wildlife habitats and the fragmentation of remaining natural area.
Initiatives to reduce the side effects of urban sprawl and to revitalise the land can be implemented in small public or private community gardens, as well as in large urban farms and orchards.
Shaping landscapes of continuity
With the 2019 coronavirus outbreak and many of us cooped up indoors, there's been a renewed interest in all things horticultural. It's exciting to see this surge in interest. However, claims that growing fruit and vegetables will save money and make the average person self-sufficient have no basis in fact. Indeed, the aim is not to turn every square metre of a suburban garden into a patch of food.
A place of wonder and the unexpected, the garden is above all a place of encounter, of meaningful contact with the diversity of nature and society. The garden without vistas and openings, pure scenography or, even worse, pure trompe l'oeil, is hardly a garden at all.
The ancient Chines, who were among the earliest landscapers, conceived of the "borrowed landscape," in which the garden did not end at its physical limits. The surrounding environment was incorporated visually (and ecologically), forming a continuum. This principle remains relevant today, as we imagine gardens not only as human-centric spaces, but as shared habitats—designed systems that function in dialogue with native ecologies rather than relying on artificial inputs.
Working with wilderness means accepting permanence over spectacle. It is not about imposing novelty, but revealing structure—tuning into existing rhythms and enhancing ecological coherence. In this sense, the garden does not sit on the land; it helps articulate it.
Forest gardens—small integrated systems inspired by natural woodland structures—offer an accessible, low-impact model for food production. More importantly, they promote biodiversity and sustain landscape continuity, increasingly eroded by fragmentation and urban expansion.
we're on it,
together