In the well-to-do town of Bedford, New York, there are a few givens: there are apple orchards and quaint bed and breakfasts, cute bakeries and amazing antiques shops and, of course, many grand estates complete with rolling green lawns and well-hedged gardens. Perhaps most impressive of the latter belongs to the doyenne of the domestic, Martha Stewart.
Gardening for biodiversity – why changing the rules is good news for garden lovers!
10.06.2023 - 05:54 / themiddlesizedgarden.co.uk
Gardening for biodiversity means gardening with nature rather than trying to control it.
And it’s caused a revolution in our gardening rules. Firstly, it means less work for you.
A few years ago, you would have been advised to scatter slug pellets, take your leaves to the local tip and mow your lawns into smart stripes. You’d be expected to spray your plants against pests, dig your borders over and keep up a relentless programme of control against nature.
Now some of these jobs are considered unnecessary or even harmful.
And this isn’t some fringe or cult belief. This is coming from the leading gardening organisation in the UK, the Royal Horticultural Society. At their new research centre, RHS Hilltop, they are turning many gardening techniques and beliefs on their heads.
So I went to the RHS to talk to Helen Bostock, Senior Wildlife Specialist and Leigh Hunt, Principal Horticultural Advisor.
If you prefer to watch a video rather than read a post, you can see the full video interviewhere.
Why gardening for biodiversity mattersIn the past, ‘getting rid of pests’ would have been seen as a separate issue from ‘how to make compost.’
However, Helen explains that if you get rid of certain pests, your compost heap may not work as well. ‘For example, if we didn’t have springtails (a small wingless insect) or composting worms, then our compost heaps won’t compost down as well.’
Springtails are sometimes called snow fleas. They’re more common in the US than the UK, where you can find lots of companies specialising in getting rid of them. Yet they’re not harmful to people, plants or animals.
‘And without slugs and snails, you wouldn’t have song thrushes,’ she adds. ‘So there are all sorts of knock-on functions that biodiversity performs
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