Pittsburg professionals marked high Perm approach to urban greening

Ilyusa Zbrueva, Perm head gardener, was invited to Pittsburg to take part in the landscape designers’ forum within the framework of the «US-Russia Peer to Peer Dialogue Program – US Embassy Moscow». The Perm delegation also included the representatives of business and higher education institutions. The Permites and the Americans shared their experience and practices in designing and maintaining the green infrastructure.

It was no coincidence that Pittsburg was chosen to host this forum – up to the 1980s it used to be the centre of the USA iron and steel industry while now it has become a city renowned for being a tourist destination, and a health care and high technologies centre. Urban greening programmes played a key role in changing Pittsburg into one of the most livable cities. Pittsburg landscape designers and green space workers use mostly shrubs to decorate the city. This is why they were impressed when finding out that their Perm peers use plenty of bright annual flowers to contribute to the city greening. They also took an interest in the unusual design of plantings and the variety of flowers that are used to make the city more attractive.

The participants of the forum pointed out the importance of the city residents taking part in urban greening programmes. In many cities in the USA non-profit organizations, educational establishments, businesses and the city residents themselves are involved in the gardening projects while Perm’s residents participate in designing the city flower gardens and creating flowerbeds on the buildings’ surrounding grounds.

Ilyusa Zbrueva was quoted as saying:

– We, as greening professionals, have common targets: to conserve and multiply urban green spaces because one can hardly imagine a livable city without any plants. We hope that our American peers will find our experience helpful. We, in turn, will apply shrub greening practices widely to make our autumn decorations more diverse where our climate allows us to do so.

A few thousand transplants of lilac, meadowsweet, cotoneaster and hawthorn were used to decorate Perm during the 2014 urban greening campaign.