Can disruptive plant species be “honoured” without being “othered”? This project investigates several passive methods of controlling plant species in order to find gentle and respectful housing for non-native species.

Problem: “invasive” plant species often out-compete native plant species and are potentially disruptive to those ecologies.

Reframing invasive plant species as “competitive” and “non-native competitive” provides a more neutral and objective approach towards looking at these species.

This project’s proposal of gentle containment or “defining a soft boundary” includes seed catchment with woven jute, liming soil to raise pH against acid preferred species, relocating soil types from parts of the site, deliberate co-planting of non-competitive plant species and environmentally informed site placement and orientation. Together emerged both a new vernacular and a design strategy. It can potentially be edited and implemented elsewhere, allowing the physical holding plant of species in a specific site while allowing them robust growth.