“The landscape of any farm is the owner’s portrait of himself”.
So wrote Aldo Leopold in 1939 and in doing so he connected the social identification of a landowner with the appearance of their land. Our landscapes are public portraits of ourselves. A neat and tidy garden is a sign of effort, pride and neighbourliness.
Similarly, people have preferences for the appearance of public urban landscapes. Often, these preferences are driven by the desire for deliberate intent to be evident in the landscape. It is important for managers to understand these preferences and to control the appearance of landscapes to provide appealing aesthetic experiences. An approach is needed to match the desire for neatness in urban landscapes with the inherent messiness of vegetation. Using cues to human care is an approach that will help you to conserve resources and meet people’s preferences for landscape appearance.
Using ‘cues to care’ can reduce criticism of standards of care, accommodate the inherent dynamism of landscapes, and improve resource efficiency. Changing the appearance of landscapes can be threatening for some people and disappointing if the change is not what they expected. This creates a challenge for managers. Many urban landscapes already do not meet community expectations for care and presentation. ‘Cues to care’ provides a planned approach that will overcome concerns about change because it is based on our understanding of human psychology.
The use of ‘cues to care’ is discussed as a resource optimisation strategy in urban landscape management. This will overlap some aspects of the original use of ‘cues to care’ for ecological protection.
The term ‘cues to care’ was first used in 1995 by Professor Joan Nassauer in her article ‘Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames. She used the term to describe our cultural need to display care in landscapes. The idea is for the unfamiliar or undesirable to be placed within the familiar and attractive. The underlying motivation is the belief that landscapes that people enjoy are more likely to be culturally sustainable. ‘Cues to care’ was originally defined as cues that indicate human intentions in ecological landscapes in cities. I am proposing that ‘cues to care’ be thoughtfully used to signal human intention in the management and care of all urban public landscapes as a way to conserve resources. Many of us probably already do this intuitively.
Because ‘cues to care’ make the unfamiliar appear more familiar and comfortable, they are useful for managing landscapes that look different. This is particularly relevant to naturalistic landscapes, such as remnant grasslands, prairie and heath land. Cues are likely to vary from place to place and community to community.
So, what are ‘cues to care’? Some cues relevant to urban public landscapes include:
- Removing rubbish, litter and debris. Cleaning up shows management presence.
- Mowing a neat strip around an area that remains unmown. People might expect more of the area to be mown but they can see maintenance has occurred and the area has not been forgotten or neglected.
- An associated idea is differential mowing where grass is cut to different heights or on different cycles. It is important to ensure that ‘patterns’ are clearly visible in the mown and unmown areas that make sense to a viewer. Follow contours or run parallel to fence lines or garden beds to create strong patterns with clean edges.
- Use plants that are commonly cultivated. People are more likely to find the whole area more attractive if they recognise some of the plants as ornamental. Some contemporary groundcover plants are highly functional but indiscernible from weeds by the general public.
- Provide fences on boundaries to establish ownership. Consider placing furniture in the area as a sign of human occupation. The landscape should look as though someone cares about it.
- Put signs with information about the place. Explain how it is being maintained. People might not agree but they will know the area is intended to look the way it does.
How can you implement ‘cues to care’? Lawn mowing is a resource intensive horticultural practice in many landscapes. Large areas of lawns are regularly mown. By mowing less areas or mowing less often, fuel energy consumption, air pollution and noise will be reduced. In addition, more grasses will flower and set seed, enriching ecological processes. The banner photo shows an example of differential mowing in a coastal parkland in Dalmeny, NSW.
With care, differential mowing can create attractively patterned, interesting landscapes. Operationally, mowing practice will need to be reviewed and mowing areas mapped, marked on site for operator convenience and schedules changed to mow particular areas at particular times.
Reducing resource use by planning maintenance as a series of interventions in response to changes in vegetation condition will make management of the landscape more environmentally sustainable. Routine maintenance scheduled for the same date each month or performed regardless of the actual conditions will consume more resources. It can also reduce biodiversity and impair ecological processes. Continually removing biomass by mowing will prevent flowering and seed set, and applying selective herbicides to create monocultures of grass reduces species diversity. Similar thinking can be applied to garden or flower beds. Use perennial or self-regenerating plants in ways that provide acceptable appearance throughout the year. Using ‘cues to care’ will ensure that cultural sustainability is not sacrificed in pursuit of environmental sustainability.
In summary, not every urban landscape looks the way people expect or prefer. ‘Cues to care’ provides a way to meet aesthetic conventions and be more environmentally sustainable. ‘Cues to care’ meet the cultural need for deliberate intent to be evident in the landscape. Cues are signs that a place is not neglected, even if it has been maintained the way you expect. Use ‘cues to care’ in your landscapes and be more environmentally sustainable.
If you don’t use ‘cues to care’, the resource intensity of your landscape maintenance will be greater. ‘Cues to care’ is a contemporary approach to landscape maintenance that provides an opportunity to match aesthetic preferences and expectations while reducing the amount of resources required.
Nassauer, J., (1995). Messy Ecosystems, Orderly Frames. Landscape Journal, 14:2, pp 161-170.
Urban Landscape Management 