PLANNING FOR BIODIVERSITY

Looking to create a garden that encourages biodiversity but which is also productive? Becky Searle offers some valuable insights based on her own garden

- Becky Searle

In 2018 I took on a new garden. It was a tangle of weeds and a mess of paved pathways, decking, gravel and rubble. But it had great potential, too – an old pond, several fruit trees and a beautiful but slightly rickety wooden greenhouse. Half of the garden was a vegetable patch, and the other half was ornamental. But the garden had been abandoned, and nature had begun to take it back. Ivy twisted around the greenhouse like a snake ensnaring its next victim. Brambles hung lazy and foreboding, and bindweed trumpeted innocently from the hedgerow. And everywhere, nature staked its claim with tall seed spikes, drifting like flags in the breeze.

It took several days to excavate far enough into the garden to find the pond. We didn’t know it was there, but it was bubbling with frogspawn and writhing with newts by spring.

NATURE DIDN’T NEED ANY SIGNPOSTS

When I set about planning the garden, I wanted to create a space that was practical and productive, fun for my kids and great for wildlife. Biodiversity is the crux of a healthy, low-maintenance garden. Mostly, all we must do is allow nature to exist in – what we see as – our space, as demonstrated by abandoned gardens and allotments across the world.

Amendments such as bird feeders, bee hotels and hedgehog houses can go a long way, but we must be careful not to think of biodiversity as being just the animals we recognise and love. The garden is home to millions of species, and with a few simple adjustments, we can make our garden more welcoming to everyone.