In May 2010, a new botanical garden Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Park 上海辰山植物园 (Shanghai’s 2nd botanical garden) opened after 3 years of construction. The project was apart of improvement works by the government for the 2010 EXPO.
The Botanic Park was designed by Christoph Valentien of Valentien + Valentien Landscape Architects and Urban Planners. The design uses Chinese Garden techniques informed by ecological principles. 35 theme parks spread across 200 hectares of land, framed by a ring of laurel forests from all over the world. New Botanic Garden Shanghaihas been published about the design by Jovis.
Below is a video with Christoph Valentien by Art.21 program of Deutsche Welle channel.
The Botanical Park is situated in the area known as Songjiang and is 30km from downtown Shanghai and is accessible by the newly opened Metro Line 9.
TV Gardener Charlie Dimmock helping local children with planting
The first of 4,000 new semi-mature trees are taking root in the London’s Olympic Park with around 100 ash, cherry and hazel trees, grown in Hampshire, already planted. The first of 300,000 wetland plants, grown in Norfolk and Wales for the UK’s largest ever urban river and wetland planting, were laid on the river banks today by Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson, TV Gardener Charlie Dimmock, Olympic Gold medal winner Jonathan Edwards, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) Chairman John Armitt and children from the Olympic Park construction crew.
The new reed beds are being created in a large wetland bowl in the north of the Olympic Park, formerly a 100 year old landfill site, where visitors during the Games will be able to relax and watch the action in 2012 on live screens. In legacy the riverside area will be a tranquil space for people and wildlife which will also help protect 5,000 properties in the area from flooding.
Over 30 species of native reeds, rushes, grasses, sedges, wet wildflowers and irises have been grown initially by Salix in its nursery on the Gower peninsular in Wales with around a third grown from cuttings and seeds collected in and around the Olympic Park before construction started in 2008.
You can watch the park turn from brown to green with two new webcams
Deutsche Welle channel recently posted a video on Youtube in which they interviewed Swiss landscape architect Enzo Enea about his Tree Museum which recently opened in Rapperswil-Jona on the shore of Lake Zurich, Switzerland.
A prominent landscape designer urged Malaysian designers to put natural beauty and art back into its garden designs and return to her tropical forest roots.
Made Wijaya, a landscape designer, said local designers should look towards the rich local culture like those in Kelantan and Terengganu for inspiration.
Annapolis intends to test a floating island in a local lagoon that, if successful, could help clean the water in the Chesapeake Bay, according to Mayor Ellen O. Moyer……
Floating islands are created from recycled plastics and planted with wetland plants that soak up nutrients from the water, said Steve Carr, the city’s environmental adviser. He said the project in Annapolis will act as a test to see whether the technology can be implemented in larger areas of the bay.
