Peter Dowdall · Horticultural Perspectives

Horticultural Perspectives: Why Planting Is Infrastructure

Peter Dowdall, Irish horticulturist and broadcaster, sitting beside yellow rudbeckia planting on St Patrick's Street, Cork, an urban greening pilot with trees and seating

Plants are usually treated as the finishing touch, the first thing cut when budgets tighten. I think that's the wrong way round.

Trees, hedges and planting manage stormwater, cool streets, support biodiversity and make places people want to live in. They are working infrastructure, and in a changing climate they're some of the most cost-effective infrastructure we have.

Horticultural Perspectives is where I write about the bigger picture: urban greening, nature restoration, climate adaptation and the policies and budgets that decide what gets planted. It draws on more than 30 years of horticulture and plenty of time explaining plants on national radio and TV. The aim is to translate evidence and policy into language that people, communities and decision-makers can act on.

Are We Getting It Yet?

Those of us who work with plants get it. The challenge now is explaining it to the people who decide what gets funded, in cubic metres of stormwater, euro of...

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I work with councils, agencies, organisations and media to make the case for nature in our towns and cities, through talks, panels, broadcast, writing and public engagement on greening projects.

Brands and organisations: see partnerships and collaborations.

Media and speaking

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