About Third Landscapes

In the heart of cities, by garbage dumps, on neglected courtyards, or in abandoned buildings, wild gardens have grown. Untended by humans, they bloom, smell, and are often edible. These gardens, usually well hidden behind houses or along streets, are small green pockets. Dots of urban vegetation between paved streets and buildings. These dots, one next to another, connect and form long stretches known as green corridors. These corridors can stretch for hundreds of meters, sometimes running through entire neighborhoods and connecting with the wild greenery of forests and meadows beyond the city.

The pockets of gardens are created by wild plants, commonly called weeds. When they bloom, they provide food for urban insects. In wild gardens, many different species of plants appear – it’s like a restaurant with a very long menu available for insects. There’s plenty to choose from. The menu changes seasonally, along with the blooming periods of individual plants.

Urban wasteland is unwanted, forgotten land, often overgrown as well. It is a neglected space in the city, taken over by wild plants. “Unkempt” courtyards, disused railways, areas around road infrastructure, cemeteries, abandoned buildings. These places, often referred to as empty spaces, are, however, full of wild greenery.

These unused areas are constantly used by wild plants, insects, birds, and other animals. They develop spontaneously. These are very important spaces in the city. Perhaps these green wastelands should be given a new name. Definitely a more positive one.

Gilles Clément is a French botanist and landscape architect. Describing the beauty of wild gardens growing on urban wastelands, he called them third landscapes. Gilles, like many other contemporary landscape architects, considers such places valuable and admires their unique beauty.

For a wild garden to be called a third landscape, it must arise spontaneously, without human intervention or involvement. This is very different from a regular garden, where seeds are sown, seedlings are planted, and then care is given to the plants’ growth through pruning and guidance. Third landscapes happen on their own. Nature “cultivates” these gardens. In addition to urban wastelands, such places can also include nature reserves, roadside areas, mountain slopes, overgrown railway tracks, and other areas inaccessible to humans.

Looking at the city from above, from a bird’s-eye view, one can spot numerous green patches. In addition to the large patches – parks and gardens – small splashes of greenery have found their place among the grayness of roads and sidewalks and the mosaic of colorful rooftops. Many of these splashes are, in fact, third landscapes – uninvited wild gardens.

Though small, these splashes are significant for the ecology of the city. Ecology refers to the relationships and interactions between various organisms and the environment in which they exist. Ecology, therefore, can describe the dependencies between plants and insects in the same area, as well as how these organisms affect their surroundings. The more plants there are, the more insects will appear. These splashes of wild greenery become homes for many species, providing them with food. They are small oases where plant and animal species thrive, increasing urban biodiversity.

Third landscapes can be so small that you almost need a magnifying glass to see them. Or at least a loupe. They rise just a few millimeters above the ground. We unknowingly trample them, not even noticing that somewhere between the sidewalk tiles, as a thin green strip, one of them is beginning to grow. This category of “sidewalk gardens” is often covered by a plant called Polygonum aviculare (commonly known as bird’s-foot or knotgrass).

Knotgrass is a very popular weed with many beautiful names. It is colloquially known as sparrow’s tongue, pig’s grass, pathweed, or wireweed. Its seeds are eagerly eaten by birds—chickens, geese, ducks, greenfinches, linnets, and sparrows. This is also where the plant’s species name comes from – aviculare, meaning “bird” in Latin.

Weeds thrive in very challenging conditions. They grow where other plants would find it too cold and too dark, where there is a lack of nutrients in the form of trace elements from the soil. To grow and survive, they need only a minimal amount of water, a bit of soil, and access to light.

At first, in such areas with very demanding habitat conditions, individual plants appear. Over time, as they die off during the winter, they enrich the substrate in which they grow, and their roots loosen, oxygenate, and hold in place the small particles of soil found there. The plants spread or grow larger, and in subsequent years, small patches begin to form larger green carpets. Blooming from spring to autumn, they invite insects for a nectar feast and become shelters for small rodents and insects. In this way, a small urban ecosystem is built.

The word “weed” refers to an unwanted, unwelcome plant, and it was once mainly used to describe uninvited plants appearing in agricultural crops. Today, weeds refer to most wild plants, including those that ecologists classify as ruderal plants.

Do ruderal plants grow in ruins? They do, but not only – they appear in areas heavily altered by humans. In abandoned buildings and their surroundings, urban wastelands, post-industrial spaces, street edges, roadsides, parking lots, squares, landfills, and dumpsites. These plants are often the first to settle in harsh conditions – there’s little light, even less water, and the soil is often replaced by rubble. Ruderal plants thus prepare the ground for more demanding species. Over time, such species will begin to settle in the ruderal garden.

The most famous among weeds and not particularly liked – the common nettle (Urtica dioica). This plant can strongly sting our skin if we carelessly step into its territory. Nettle is also associated with neglected gardens, dumpsites, and rubble – it’s a bit embarrassing for everyone because of this stinging plant.

However, like many other weeds, it has a whole range of positive qualities. Its rather poor reputation as the black sheep among herbaceous plants should be dispelled.
First of all, it is a medicinal plant rich in vitamins. Nettle tea helps with fatigue, arthritis, and kidney problems. Nettle can also be used to prepare delicious dishes – soups, casseroles, tarts. Nettle-based shampoos, soaps, and other cosmetics are also produced. The stinging nettle is a plant with many benefits.

Wild lawns are made up of low weeds, typically plants from the grass family. Wild lawns are the opposite of neatly trimmed English lawns, like those found on sports fields or in gardens. They are teeming with plant diversity (mostly grasses) and are often much taller than mowed lawns. Unmowed, they form flowers, bloom, and fruit – providing food for birds and insects. While English lawns, though loved and aesthetically pleasing, are a natural green desert – it’s hard to find food for insects there.

Couch grass (Elymus repens) is one of the plants that grow in wild lawns and is also an unwelcome guest in agricultural fields. It is an extremely resilient plant in the competition for water and light, and it is quite troublesome for farmers. In cities, however, it creates beautiful wild lawns, and like nettle, it also has medicinal properties – it fights bacteria and fever.

Ruderal plants have not only medicinal properties. Most of them are wild ornamental plants – blooming poppies, cornflowers, or chicory. They create beautiful, colorful collages. They release nectar, and their attractive coloring draws many urban insects. Weeds provide food for urban insects.

Thanks to the many diverse species that cover third landscapes, the total blooming period is greatly extended.

From early spring until autumn, insects have plenty to enjoy. As one plant finishes blooming, another starts in a different species, continuing throughout the entire growing season. Some wild plants are honey-producing – they provide urban bees with the raw material for honey production. Honey plants typically bloom for an exceptionally long period, and their flowers are very rich in nectar.