Gardening in towns and cities, now and then

The challenges we face in gardening in our towns and cities today are not dissimilar to those of Thomas Fairchild’s time, who lived 300 years ago. 86 percent of us now live in towns and cities, where flats are one of the most common types of housing. More than half of London’s housing stock is flats.

These densely populated neighbourhoods mean fewer, smaller gardens with less access to natural light. Across the UK today, 1 in 8 households do not have access to a garden.

Our towns and cities also suffer from poor air quality. In Fairchild’s day the burning of sea coal was the biggest contributing factor to London’s poor air quality. Today, industry and vehicle emissions are the main contributors to urban air pollution levels that regularly exceed World Health Organisation limits.

How can we improve our lives with gardens in our towns and cities? Fairchild, arguably the first city gardener, had some answers.

Who was Thomas Fairchild?

Thomas Fairchild was a successful gardener who ran a nursery in Hoxton, then a London suburb dominated by market gardens. Fairchild’s nursery was popular with Londoners because of the exotic plants he grew, including one of the first banana trees grown in the UK.

Fairchild's ideas on gardening were ahead of their time. He corresponded with Carl Linnaeus, creator of our modern plant-naming system. He was also the first person to successfully create an artificial hybrid. His hybrid was a cross between a sweet William and a carnation pink – Dianthus caryophyllus L. x Dianthus barbatus L. (Caryophyllaceae) – and is better known to us as ‘Fairchild’s Mule’, because it was sterile and could not reproduce.

In 1704 Fairchild was made a freeman of the City of London as a member of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. In 1722 he published his book The City Gardener, in which he set out the challenges of gardening in the city. Fairchild’s book shows us that he was well aware of the benefits of gardening in the city. Gardening improved the appearance of the city, encouraged wildlife, and aided mental wellbeing – all things we continue to regard as important today.

How can city gardens encourage wildlife?

Though there was little understanding of or concern for wildlife conservation in his day, Fairchild did suggest that London would benefit from ‘wilderness’ parks and gardens rather than too many formal squares. He noted that ‘If a Square was planted in the Manner of a Wilderness, it would be a Harbour for Birds.’

Fairchild’s plan for a City Square published in The City Gardener shows quite a formal layout of paths but a dense planting of trees and shrubs. He includes a rich variety of trees and flowering shrubs like Lilac, Laburnum and Virginian Acacia (Robinia pseudoacacia) providing a rich habitat for wildlife.

Today, the UK’s wildlife is under increasing pressure from the loss of habitat and food sources. As more traditional habitats have been reduced, the role of urban gardens as havens for pollinators and other wildlife is growing in importance.

The RHS Plants for Bugs research project has revealed that a mixture of native and non-native ornamental plants may provide the best resources for pollinating insects in gardens. Pollinators will visit both native and non-native plants. Non-native plants can be very helpful as they prolong the flowering season, providing an additional food source. Sensitively managed gardens can provide food and shelter for a wide variety of wildlife.

How can gardens improve air quality?

One of Fairchild’s chief preoccupations in The City Gardener was the need to choose plants which would survive the pollution caused by the burning of sea coal in the city. Sea coal was a cheap, low grade fuel which emitted choking, black smoke and oxides of sulphur which reacted with water to produce acid rain.

Thomas Fairchild listed over 50 different plants which could survive this pollution, including Angelica, which he said would thrive in the ‘most smoaky parts of the City.’ However he did warn that plants growing in cities would need different treatment to survive in this hostile environment, for example they could only withstand careful and gentle pruning.

Today we are not just concerned with finding and developing plants which will survive pollution, but plants which will help to manage air pollution. Plants can capture and temporarily hold pollutant particles on their leaves and can also absorb gaseous pollutants. These traits allow them to help improve air quality, however many plant species also emit chemicals – biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs) – that can interact with other components in the air to have harmful effects on human respiratory health.

It is important to pick the right plant. In 2013 the RHS Science team produced a list of plants with the Award of Garden Merit that emit low levels of BVOCs and have the best shaped leaves to capture pollutants.

How can city gardens
benefit mental health?

Fairchild wrote for a relatively wealthy audience that could employ gardeners to do the heavy work, so he did not cover the physical health benefits that working in a garden offered.

However he certainly understood the profound impact that access to green spaces and nature could have on stressed Londoners. He warned of the dangers of ‘a mind distracted or confined’, suggesting that for city dwellers, access to a garden ‘in the midst of their toil and labour’ would ‘increase their Quiet of Mind.’

Modern research suggests that Fairchild was right that gardens, by bringing people into contact with nature, can bring about ‘Quiet of Mind.’ Attention Restoration Theory (ART) suggests that mental fatigue can be reduced by time spent in, or looking at, green spaces. Exposure to natural environments is thought to encourage more effortless brain function, making it easier for the brain to replenish its capacity to concentrate.

Studies have shown that regular gardening can improve physical and mental health. Gardening reduces the risk of heart disease, cancer and obesity and improves balance, helping to prevent falls in old age. The RHS is funding research to find out more about how planted front gardens influence the health and well-being of residents and passers-by.

Fairchild’s ideas for plants in courtyard gardens

Fairchild understood the challenges of gardening in enclosed courtyards, asserting that ‘this part of City Gardening depends upon more skill than all the rest’. In his book Fairchild listed plants that he suggested would ‘grow and prosper in the closest parts of London’, such as lilacs, mulberry and fig trees, and Virginia creeper.

Of the mulberry, Fairchild wrote that they grow well in the ‘closest courts and alleys’, citing one particular example which covered an area sixteen foot square, at Sam’s Coffee House on Ludgate Street. On the subject of fig trees, Fairchild was perplexed that they weren’t more popular in London, given their ability to grow in courtyards with little light, and their ability to bear fruit.

Fairchild’s ideas for plants on balconies and indoors

Fairchild recommended a range of evergreens, shrubs and flowers that were suited for growing on balconies and in window boxes. In his list he includes bay, ivy, sweet Williams, and honeysuckle.

Fairchild also suggested that during the warm summer months, unused fireplaces could be dressed with plants and flowers, as he’d recently ‘observ'd at her Grace's the late excellent Dutchess of Beaufort’. For such settings, as well as windows, Fairchild suggested orange trees, myrtles, aloe plants, and campanulas.