More Strips, More Diverse Green Spaces in Vienna’s Municipal Housing Estates
As part of the PannFlora project, sowing strips containing regional herbs and grasses were established in three green spaces around Vienna’s municipal housing estates. They make it possible to enrich the existing lawns gradually, without removing and re-establishing the entire vegetation.
More Nature Between the Buildings
Green spaces around municipal housing estates are an important part of residents’ everyday surroundings. They provide places for relaxation, help cool the local environment and can also offer habitats for plants, insects and other animals.
However, many of these areas are intensively maintained and mown up to seven times a year. This results in tidy but species-poor lawns. Increasingly frequent summer heat and low rainfall also cause lawns and flower beds to dry out quickly. Solutions are therefore needed that provide greater diversity while being better adapted to a changing climate.
Strips as a Tool for Transformation
The pilot measures were implemented in three selected green spaces around municipal housing estates in Vienna’s 21st and 22nd districts. The existing lawns were not completely removed. Instead, strips approximately one metre wide were milled into the sites at intervals of about three metres. This created areas of exposed soil where the seeds could come into direct contact with the ground and germinate more successfully. Special PannFlora mixtures composed of regional herbs and grasses from Pannonian dry grasslands and meadows were sown in the prepared strips. These plants are naturally adapted to local climatic conditions, high temperatures and limited water availability. They also tolerate regular mowing well. The seed was collected by hand by the PannFlora team in Vienna and the surrounding area. After harvesting, the plant material was dried, cleaned and prepared for sowing. The strips were rolled after the seed had been sown.
The sowing strips are not only a technical method of establishing new vegetation. They also function as a distinctive landscape design element, giving the sites a new rhythm and clearly showing where the new species will begin to spread into the surrounding lawn.
Gradual Change Instead of Complete Renewal
Strip sowing makes it possible to introduce new species into the existing lawn without extensive disturbance to the whole site. Most of the original vegetation remains in place, protecting the soil from overheating and drying out and helping to maintain a more favourable microclimate. It also reduces disturbance to the soil structure and soil organisms.
Although this approach takes longer, it reduces the risk that the site will remain bare during hot and dry periods after the entire lawn has been removed. It also brings visible change and movement to the green spaces, which residents can observe directly from their windows. In addition, the areas can continue to be used throughout the gradual transformation.
Who Are We Working With?
The pilot sites were implemented as part of the PannFlora project in cooperation with Wiener Wohnen and the City of Vienna’s Environmental Protection Department (MA 22).
