Biodiversity protects plants

If there's one thing that Mother Nature hates more than an empty space, it's a monoculture ;and according to recent research, one of the reasons for this self-defence.

Consider the great British lawn, the vegetable plot or the farmer's field, or indeed, anywhere where humans try to grow just one type of plant; Mother Nature will always do her utmost to introduce some other species. We call them weeds and fight like billio to get rid of them screaming "they're competing for water and nutrients, they must die!"

A wildflower meadow with many plant species all mixed in together

Now think about a more biodiverse space, perhaps a border in a cottage garden or maybe a wildflower meadow. There may be an occasional rogue plant but so long as the overall plant population is fairly dense and the nutrient levels in the soil are well balanced and sensible, it's unusual for weeds to be problematic.

a critter that might become a pest elsewhere is not a major
problem in a biodiverse meadow

Likewise, pests and diseases don't seem to get out of hand. It's almost as though some of the plants just don't get noticed by predators and pathogens. Whilst slugs, snails, aphids and pigeons decimate my vegetable patch, they all visit my mini -meadow and some seem to dwell there, yet the sward stays thick, robust and healthy.

On a green roof, where poor  planning and lack of maintenance results in a monoculture, it would only take one season of really bad weather or an attack by pests that thrive on the single remaining species to kill off all of the vegetative layer.

A study by biologists at the University of Guelph finds that greater species diversity in an area helps ecosystems avoid irreversible collapse after human disturbances. The team compared areas of mostly grasses with areas of mixed grasses and native plants. In a ten-year study plots were selectively burnt. The scientists found that seemingly stable single species grassland plots burned most intensely, collapsed after one growing season and were subsequently overrun by tree species.

The mixed grass and native species plots were less likely to burn intensely and resisted the tree invasion.

So have farmers and gardeners been getting it all wrong by cultivating single species plots to improve yields? Hard to say really.  It all depends who you're talking to. In the vegetable garden (and in the flower garden) I'd say yes.....it is possible to grow marigolds alongside carrots to avoid carrot-fly or nasturtiums with beans to distract aphids.  But, having been married to a farmer for a very long time, I'm pretty sure that companion planting wouldn't be practical on a field scale.

Scientists may tell us that a few extra species in a field of peas or wheat will prove advantageous in the long run but they're not the ones driving the harvesters or trying to store the crop.....modern technology has helped keep food prices down but it only works well where the crop is a monoculture and that means using selective  herbicides and pesticides. It would be wonderful if we could feed the world by foraging, hunting and simple farming and gardening - but we won't achieve the volumes and prices would be humungous.

large fields and huge machines lead to economies
of scale and allow for cheaper food production

May we should shrink the machines, divide up the prairie sized fields and return to medieval strip farming....ie a strip of wheat will be bordered by peas on one side, beet on the other side. We'd see a radical change in our countryside and food production would become very, very expensive. 

It seems as though the preservation of our biodiversity can only be tackled practically and effectively by gardeners, local authorities, highways departments, railway companies, buildings managers and developers. Let the farmers grow food but continue to encourage them to allow woodland, hedgerow, roadside and meadow plants to thrive.  In the meantime, we'll do as much as we can to reinstate green spaces and flower beds, to create green roofs and plant as many different plants species as we can in every bare space.  The bees will certainly thank us. And as a result, the plants will protect our food supply, our wildlife and.......the other plants.

Is biodiversity too untidy for 21st century living?

Wildlife-friendly garden  or lazy gardener?

The weather today is grey and gloomy, and because I've spent a good part of the last fortnight away from home; 2 days for my son's graduation in Sheffield, a day in London at the steering committee meeting for the Landscape Show, a reception at the House of Commons and of course the Futurescape Show at Kempton Park; the inside of my house is looking rather unkempt.

Now I hate housework with a vengeance and a passion, so invariably, as soon as I pick up a broom, my thoughts begin to wander, and today I'm wondering if our modern day obsession with outward appearances has lead to the demise of garden wildlife.

When I think about life in the western world, it seems to me that in general, we're far more materialistic than our predecessors ever were; more concerned with presenting the right image of ourselves to the rest of the world and, sadly, a tad self obsessed.

Way back in history, gardening for leisure was only for the rich and privileged. Everyone else was concentrating on keeping warm, dry and fed - but not necessarily in that order. As time went on, life became slightly better for the masses. If they were employed, they were generally housed too, but gardens were still only for the wealthier folks. So, it follows that if you had a garden, you were socially superior to anyone living in a two-up-two-down like my Auntie Aggies house in Preston.

Auntie Aggie lived in a terraced house with a front door that opened onto the street and a back door that lead into a tiny paved yard with a privvy but no room for greenery. Uncle Tom used to supplement their diet with veg grown on his allotment. The whole estate was the same, row on row of perfectly decent mill workers houses. If you happened to reach foreman grade, you may have been able to afford a house with a bit of a garden. Maybe grow a few roses...p

Jump forward to the 1950's and low and behold, standards of living have risen for some people and the lawnmower has become affordable. More people have gardens and they make a point of keeping them immaculate so that the whole world knows they are a happy, decent and prosperous family. There'll be a lawn, a hedge, flower borders, possibly a bird bath and it’s crucial that everything is neat and tidy.

By 2012, the family has got wheels – lots of them – and they need a place to park them that is close to the front door and acceptable to the insurance company.  So, the front garden is (very neatly) buried under brick-weave and concrete.  With these wheels, the family can travel – to the retail park, to friends’ houses and to work….and let’s face it; they need to work long hours to raise the money to pay for their home, their cars, their big TV and their brick-weave.  With no energy left at the end of the week, gardening takes second place to more relaxing pastimes and so the back lawn and flower beds are transformed into a low-maintenance deck with a patio area and a plastic lawn.  The hedge is then replaced with a wooden fence that won’t ever need trimming and bingo! very neat, quite attractive, but devoid of habitat.

Having said all that…recent research from the RSPB has shown that urban gardens are much more biodiverse than most parks and communal areas.  So where does that leave our wildlife?  Hungry I suspect.

green roof shed standing in a wildflower meadow

The answer is simple.  Find some low maintenance, but biodiverse ways of bringing green plants into public spaces and private gardens.  Green roofs and mini wildflower meadows really don’t need a lot of TLC and they can really benefit insects, small mammals and birds without making the outside of a house look unkempt or creating a lot of work.  If anything, a living roof on the garden shed or a modern planter filled with colorful native plants will prove to the community that whoever looks after this plot of land is very aware of the importance of biodiversity in the future of our planet and is “doing their bit”

I’m off to temporarily improve the look of the inside of my home…I say temporarily, housework seems like a waste of time when the home is shared by 3 dogs, 2 lively grandchildren, a welly-wearing garden lover and a filthy farmer.  It’s no wonder I prefer to be outside.