Czech website offers maps and guides for greening villages

A new portal for rural greenery care

Czechia has launched the Venkovská zeleň website, which offers mayors, planners and villagers free guidelines, maps and recommendations for caring for green spaces. The resource helps with planning new plantings and updating existing green areas.

Visitors to the site find advice on how to factor in a given area’s natural conditions, history, landscape structure and residents’ needs when choosing plants.

The portal is based on the results of the project “Local Identity of Rural Settlement Greenery”, carried out in 2011–2014 with support from the National Agency for Agricultural Research under the Czech Ministry of Agriculture. It was coordinated by the VÚK research institute, with the Faculty of Horticulture of Mendel University in Brno and the Faculty of Science of Charles University also taking part.

Scientists conducted an in-depth study of three model regions — the Čertovo Břemeno association of municipalities, part of the České středohoří (Czech Central Uplands), and the Moravian Karst and Časnýř micro-regions. For each of them, specialists prepared a separate set of guidelines on ornamental and fruit trees, shrubs and grasses, as well as a general methodology applicable across the whole country.

“Villages shouldn’t lose their character under a layer of uniform plantings that look the same everywhere. Well-chosen trees, shrubs and grasses, on the contrary, can highlight what makes a particular place special, echo its history and thrive in local conditions. That’s exactly the kind of choice we want to help people make through the website,” says Adam Baroš of VÚK’s Department of Cultural Landscape and Settlements.

From choosing plants to caring for them

The guidelines are not limited to a list of suitable plant species. They explain in detail the techniques for establishing plantings and the rules for subsequent care, while also taking into account the ecological, aesthetic and historical appropriateness of specific plants.

Special attention is paid to the connection between villages and the surrounding landscape: the authors highlight the importance of gardens, fruit-tree avenues and greenery near small sacred structures, and of preserving the area’s distinctive character. The recommendations are meant to help municipalities and planners avoid plantings that would struggle to take root in specific conditions or would disrupt the character of the area.

“Our goal is to turn research results into a form that’s genuinely usable in practice. A mayor, a landscaping specialist or a planner can download professional materials for free from the website and use them when preparing a specific project. For students, the site offers clear examples of how natural sciences, history, geography and landscape architecture intertwine in landscape work,” Baroš adds.

Maps that preserve the landscape’s memory

Specialized maps are an important part of the portal. They show elements of local identity, old fruit-tree varieties and the landscape character of individual areas, and also contain information on memorial and notable trees, valuable habitats and small sacred sites.

Such maps help people see the landscape as a whole and understand why regions differ from one another. They can be used in planning public spaces, restoring gardens and avenues, caring for cultural heritage, and for educational and other professional purposes.

“In one place, we’ve gathered the results of several research topics united by a concern for greenery as part of our natural and cultural heritage. We want scientific knowledge not to stay locked away in archives, but to help the people who make decisions about the appearance of villages, landscapes, gardens and parks,” Baroš concludes.

The guidelines, maps and other materials are freely available on the venkovskazelen.cz website. Any further publication of them must credit the authors and source.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by ekolist.cz