The Natural Gardener
It didn’t surprise me one bit when we reported recently that Paul Rule, a nature lover from Cambridge, recorded a remarkable 573 separate species of plants, insects, birds and other animals in his garden over three years. In fact, there were likely lots more tucked away he hadn't seen. Nonetheless, the newsworthiness of this story is that his garden is nothing special. At just 330sq m, it’s slightly larger than a tennis court, with just a lawn, tall boundary hedges and a few trees. He admits to not being much of a gardener.
Amazingly, it’s only in the last few decades that garden ecologists have realised quite how biodiverse our domestic plots are. Even up until the 1970s, eminent experts assumed that everyday gardens are barren wastelands in comparison to countryside habitats. In fact, we’re learning more and more it’s actually the other way around.
It was Dr Jennifer Owen who broke the mould. Between 1971 and 2001 she surveyed her distinctly average suburban garden in Leicester, recording in total 2,673 species. That’s 474 plants, 1,997 insects, 138 other invertebrates and 64 vertebrates (54 of them birds). She even studied one family of parasitic wasps and found 533 species, including seven species new to Britain and four completely new to science.
As an ecologist she knew what she was looking at, of course, but it just shows what’s out there under our noses.
Take my plot (an unfortunately very modest town garden); just the other day I casually spied a 14-spot ladybird and a black slip wasp (Pimpla rufipes) not 30cm (1ft) from my back door.
So, take no notice of special ‘wildlife gardens’. All gardens are wildlife gardens. Don’t get me wrong, there are always improvements we can make as to how wildlife-friendly our plots are, but as you sit and mull over your garden’s ecological credentials this summer, take heart that as long as you haven’t plumped for a miserable desert of concrete slabs and fake grass, your plot is beyond any doubt far richer, wilder and more alive with captivating wildlife than you think.