Beginning from the double premise that, particularly in the city, designed landscapes function as a socially and culturally powerful form of visual media, and that they do so in interaction with other visual media forms, this paper seeks to both investigate and challenge what is taken as a reciprocal shaping of urban visibilities. This investigation is occasioned primarily by the rise of digital and networked photographies, and the disruptive potential they seem to hold with respect to this reciprocal influence. Drawing on theories of materialist media ecology, it proceeds by way of an interpretative experiment in relation to a set of photographs of a park, as circulated on Instagram.

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Weeding is a mundane activity that nonetheless affords the opportunity to reorient garden practices in a manner that is more open with regard to relations between humans and non-human beings. Based on a critical analysis of what constitutes a weed and the psychological and political significance of weeding, as well as a consideration of the agency of plants generally, I argue that a more creative or experimental approach to weeding may help to unsettle otherwise habitual and unreflective practices. Enabling individuals to become more open to new ways of doing things in the garden and new ways of thinking about non-human nature, may in turn contribute to the efficacy of collective responses to environmental change.

In popular conservation discourse, Rhododendron ponticum is portrayed as an alien invader let loose on the British countryside by misguided gardeners. In Scotland, eradication campaigns tend to be favored over more pragmatic approaches to management, even though the methods employed can be destructive and long-term success is often limited. Building on recent work critiquing categorical approaches to invasive species management, we argue that such campaigns obscure not only the underlying conditions but also the ongoing production of plant invasiveness. We focus in particular on the way perceptual processes shape and are shaped by plant "invasions" over time. Noting that the majority of plant invasions worldwide are initiated by the horticultural trade, and that visual appearance is a major factor in the selection of plants for trade, we present a framework for critically analyzing the visual conditions of horticulturally led invasion ecologies. Working from the perspective of a more-than-human, materialist media ecology, we cast rhododendrons as entities that modulate light, or "photomedia." Our analysis explores how their invasiveness is materially produced via the cultural and socioeconomic as well as vegetal relations in which they are entangled. The site of our analysis is an abandoned country estate in western Scotland that has recently undergone R. ponticum removal. By examining the production of visual effects by rhododendrons, cameras, and other media employed there, we identify relations to land that, far from being limited to the period of R. ponticum's "escape" into the Scottish countryside, continue in present-day projects of eradication. This yields critical visual strategies for a gentler, more experimental re-mediation of R. ponticum and invaded landscapes in general.

After the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, landscape architects in North America have been called on to design public landscapes that are not only more secure but also aesthetically pleasing. In this article, the author explores the cultural and political implications of certain plant-based design strategies drawn from the Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design movement—in particular those that facilitate visual surveillance of public landscapes. Taking a broadly socio-semiotic approach, the author attempts to use a consideration of the way particular techniques work, socially and practically speaking, to reveal forms of significance that would not otherwise be apparent. The author concludes with a brief analysis of the winning design for the new American Embassy in London, as an example of a landscape attempting to be both environmentally friendly and secure.