Environmental sustainability wasn’t landscape architect Carl Smith’s first priority when he first began his career. However, as he worked on a variety of residential projects in his native England, he began to discover its importance, to both the well-being of the residents of his designs and the planet as a whole. “It dawned on me that I was in a position to have a direct influence on the health of tiny bits of the planet,” he says, “and the quality of life of the people who use them.” After spending a year in Fayetteville as the University of Arkansas School of Architecture’s 2007 Garvan Chair Visiting Professor, Carl has joined the landscape architecture faculty and published a new book, Residential Landscape Sustainability: A Checklist Tool (Blackwell Publishing, 2008), which compiles diverse material into a single accessible volume, providing an amazing resource for Arkansas homeowners and design professionals alike.

For Carl, landscape architecture combines a variety of his lifelong interests. “It’s the perfect confluence of so many of my passions—some stemming from childhood, such as art and the natural world, and some I’ve acquired as an adult, such as working closely with people,” he says. A Royal Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute, Carl holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental science from the University of Lancaster, a masters in urban design and a doctorate in sustainable housing, both from the University of Sheffield, as well as a post-graduate certificate in urban design from the University of Newcastle. As a practicing landscape architect, he originally embraced “quite brutal design, where aesthetics came absolutely first.” But while working on the surroundings for an energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable building, he realized the impact his designs have. “If we only consider the sustainability of the houses themselves, we’d be missing something pretty crucial,” Carl says. “The quality of people’s home environments has been shown to have a deep influence on their mental and physical well-being. Unsustainable housing is unethical.”

According to Carl, the key to creating an environmentally responsible landscape lies in creating multi-purpose spaces. Trees and plantings can be selected to maximize aesthetic, energy and ecological benefits, streets can help with storm-water management, and neighborhood parks can provide opportunities for recycling and community development. In your own yard, Carl encourages homeowners to see the value in planting and maintaining trees, to choose natural materials over engineered products for structures, to harvest rainwater for irrigation, and to favor native and non-invasive plants to attract wildlife and drive local biodiversity.

In his book, which was co-authored with Andy Clayden and Nigel Dunnett, Carl presents these principles in a clear, easy-to-follow volume, introducing sustainable landscape design in a purely residential context. Perhaps most useful is the checklist, which compiles information on sustainability from experts all over the world. “Basicially, the checklist ties it all together and provides a handy resource for those wanting advice on how to be greener in their own landscape,” he says.

Carl is enjoying sharing his green expertise with Arkansas homeowners and design professionals, as well as enjoying all that Fayetteville and Arkansas have to offer. “The scenery is actually very reminiscent of England, but without the hedgerows,” he says. “Arkansas might be a little bit of a hidden gem, but really, who wouldn’t want to live here?”

Carl Smith’s Environmentally Responsible Tips for Residential Gardeners
•    Plant trees to provide protection for your house from hot sun and cold winds. You can save up to 25% of your energy bills by planting trees and larger shrubs in the right places!

•    Choose natural building materials such as timber and stone over metal, plastics and cement.

•    Ask your supplier where materials come from—natural stone trucked from hundreds of miles away is no better for the environment than a concrete block made just down the road. Ask for timber that is local and certified by the Forest Stewardship Council as being from a sustainable source.

•    Diversify plantings with native plants and non-invasive non-native plants.

•    Design structural items such as decks and fences to be easily dismantled and re-used, rather than smashed and dumped, by constructing them with bolts and screws rather than nails.

•    Compost vegetable waste from the kitchen with leaves, cuttings and branches to improve your soil.

•    Think about landscaping in layers—ground covers, shrubs, larger shrubs and trees—to attract maximum biodiversity.

•    Plant natural hedges instead of building fencing, allowing animals to move through green areas in your neighborhood.

•    Introduce rain barrels to collect and store rainwater, rather than using drinking water to irrigate in the summer months.

•    Find beauty in natural chaos and choose plants to match your garden’s environment, rather than spending your time, money and energy weeding, watering and using herbicides to maintain order.

…

Read More »

Landscape architect Carl Smith was photographed in a garden at the Botanical Garden of the Ozarks, which has a variety of sustainable features designed by university alumnus Stuart Fulbright.