Faced with the challenges of the climate crisis and increasing biodiversity loss, we are at a crucial crossroads in our engagement with the rest of the natural world.
In an event to mark the launch of Darryl Moore’s new book Gardening in a Changing World, he will be part of a conversation with Nigel Dunnett and Arit Anderson, discussing our past and present relationships with plants, and how we need to rethink our attitudes to them.
Gardening in a Changing World explores recent developments in horticulture, ecology and plant science, alongside traditional ecological knowledge and advances in the environmental humanities. The book pushes beyond the notion that gardening is always good for the planet, highlighting alternative approaches to how we can design, inhabit and enjoy our gardens and public green spaces, for the benefit of not only our species, but also all the others we share these places with.
Exploring issues raised by the book, this challenging and important conversation will be essential for anyone interested in making plants and gardens part of the solution to the current and future challenges we face, in a rapidly changing world.
Speakers
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Darryl Moore
Darryl Moore
Darryl Moore is an award-winning garden and landscape designer and writer. He is Director and co-founder of the innovative urban landscape organization Cityscapes, realizing creative approaches to greening city spaces through novel design ideas that ensure ecological, economic and social sustainability. He is co-curator of thehub.earth. He sits on the Society of Garden Designers Council, and is a fellow of the RSA. His most recent award was for the St Mungo’s Putting Down Roots Garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, showcasing sustainability and ecology in public places.
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Arit Anderson
Arit Anderson
Arit Anderson is a garden designer, writer and presenter on BBC Two's Gardeners' World.
She spent 25 years working in the dynamic industries of retail fashion and creative events. She managed teams that delivered collections and events across the globe. She balanced this fast-paced career with interests in well-being, working as a therapist and teaching holistic therapies, which led her to travel extensively to the USA.
It was the joy of having her own garden that enabled Arit to diversify her creative experiences. She found that the visual nature of fashion and the healing properties of her therapies could beautifully meld in the garden.
Playing with a new palette of colour and materials in her garden, drove her to explore the unique relationships between her love of plants, people and place. After just one season, Arit knew she wanted horticulture to become her work as well as her pleasure.
She studied gardening at Capel Manor College and whilst there had success at RHS Chelsea 2013 winning the Fresh Talent category for a student design collaboration with two other students. After attaining a diploma in garden design, she won a Gold Medal for her own design at RHS Hampton Court in 2016 in the conceptual category.
In her designs for both private and commercial clients her ethos includes simplicity and environmental sensitivity – affecting her choice of products and plants at source, with regard to their future setting.
Working as presenter for Gardeners World, and writing for national publications has enabled Arit to publicise issues about the future of gardening in an ever-changing climate, and promote solutions to the wider public. -
Nigel Dunnett
Nigel Dunnett
Nigel Dunnett is Professor of Planting Design and Urban Horticulture in the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Sheffield, and is one of the world’s leading voices on innovative approaches to planting design. He is a plantsman, designer and pioneer of the new ecological approach to planting gardens and public spaces. His work revolves around the integration of ecology and horticulture to achieve low-input, high-impact landscapes that are dynamic, diverse, and tuned to nature.
Nigel’s work is based on decades of detailed experimental research, and widespread application in practice: he works as a designer and consultant and regularly collaborates with a wide range of other professions, and his work has been widely applied in the UK and abroad. In 2016 Nigel was appointed as an Ambassador for the Royal Horticultural Society, and is a former Garden Club of America International Fellow.
