Garden in the city

Is the public realm filled by memorable planting that reflects each site’s design narrative and seasonal changes?

The 20th century Garden Cities are defined by the green character of their public realm and this has resulted in their enduring popularity. Their inclusion of a generous provision of parks, landscaped open spaces, and tree lined streets has also been identified as having important sustainability and climate change resilience benefits by the Town and Planning Association (TCPA 2014, para. 59). The objective at Ebbsfleet Garden City is to build on this tradition and further innovate through the following design principles.

Recommendations:

1. Preserve and Enhance Existing Biodiversity & EcologY

The planting design should promote the ecological health and biodiversity of the site. A key principle is to preserve the existing ecology and biodiversity and promote its enhancement through water sensitive design, urban forestry, and native plants.

2. Tree Lined Streets & Public Spaces

Street trees should be generously provided in accordance with the design guidance. The aim for the Ebbsfleet Garden City is to create robust, green streetscapes that build on the Garden City legacy. In addition, parks and public squares should be planted with trees to provide spatial structure and reinforce the new urban forest.

3. A Nature Inspired Planting Approach

The planting palette for the verges, the parks, and the squares should promote a nature inspired planting palette in accordance with the outlined planting strategy. The planting strategy outlines the key principles for creating a naturalistic planting aesthetic inspired by the existing landscape character areas and pictorial planting approach.

4. Edible Ebbsfleet

Kent’s role as the Garden of England should be actively promoted through the integration of growing spaces in the parks, innovative garden streets, and orchard trees. Collectively, the public realm should form a series of productive landscapes that provides food for local residents and links to Ebbsfleet’s agricultural legacy. The provided food should support healthy eating and the Ebbsfleet Healthy New Town Programme.

5. Year Round Beauty

For each public space typology, trees and understorey planting should be selected to create rich seasonal experiences. Utilising the provided planting approaches, landscape architects should design planting that delivers seasonal change and delight.

6. Planting to Meet the Site Conditions

All planting should be designed to suit site conditions, to ensure its long term success. Critical aspects to account for include: soil quality & permeability, local microclimate conditions, and sustainable maintenance requirements. Detailed design guidance for these critical aspects have been provided within chapter 6 of this document.