Is this the year of the landscape architect?

Welcome to the developer podcast, where we talk about how to make cities worth living in, which often has to do with the spaces between the buildings, as much as the buildings themselves. My name is Christine Murray and I'm the founding editor in chief of the developer and the director of the Festival of Place. Our ambition is to break down silos and bring people together to unpick what makes places that thrive. With new legislation for mandatory biodiversity net gain and sustainable urban drainage on new development sites, the role of the landscape architect has become more necessary than ever. But this field of study has long been critical to the more intelligent use of land in the face of a changing climate. Today, I'm talking to Carolyn Gula, a landscape designer, horticulturalist, and president-elect of the landscape institute who has worked with the National Trust and several local authorities on strategic projects to improve the environment and the health and well-being of citizens. From reducing the carbon footprint of garden machinery to combating new pests, dealing with stormwater runoff and surface water, and adapting historic landscapes, we talk about what this often misunderstood profession can bring to our places. Yes. I'm a landscape architect, chartered at the Landscape Institute. I'm also a horticulturist, and I'm currently the president-elect of the Landscape Institute, and also working as a chartered landscape architect, as a sort of employee as well as self employed at the moment. So one thing I hear a lot is that people don't understand what landscape architects are. You've also mentioned another term there, which is a horticulturalist. Can you tell me a little bit what's a landscape architect, what's a horticulturalist, and what is the confusion that we have in the profession about this role? Yes. It's an interesting question, actually, and we probably could spend hours on this. But horticulturist is mainly a person who knows about plants and how to grow them in gardens and parklands and wider, green spaces and, also manages, spaces for the beauty, of the landscape or for commercial elements. So for example, vegetable growing, very important, and to really sort of understand how to grow them, whether they're small seedling to cutting, right up to becoming a mature perennial plant or annual plant or tree or shrub or such. And the skills are quite multifold. And, yeah. And a chartered landscape architect is really a person who has sort of studied, design, or management, or maybe the science of landscape or urban design or parks management and these sort of things. And it's accredited route, which really ensures, that the professional standards are really high, and also that we are really good entities to employ by clients, which could be quite diverse with their local authorities or private clients or charities or, you know, big institutions as such, and redevelop landscapes, whether it's a window box or small garden, right up to your parks, around the corner, play …