What is biodiversity?
Biodiversity is the term for every plant and animal found on Earth as well as micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses and their habitats. In a garden we are talking about everything from mosses and lichens, to plants and trees, different cultivated varieties of flowers, fruit and vegetables including common and rare species, soil micro-organisms, insects, reptiles, amphibians, mammals and birds.
Why does it matter to me?
Most of the oxygen we all breathe comes from plankton in oceans and forests around the globe. We rely on nature to provide us with food, fuel, medicine and other essentials we simply cannot live without.
Evolution means species come and go, but we are now aware that largely through the actions of man (habitat destruction, climate change, change of agricultural practices, environmental pollution, etc) we are now losing biodiversity at an alarming rate. This is a global problem but it is also a UK problem and we all have a responsibility to help.
What is the biggest danger man is causing to the environment?
Denial - denial that we can make a difference.
On a more practical level, in-filling is a big threat to our wildlife – that is building or developing green spaces in urban areas with no mitigation. If we must make our front garden into a drive or put that extension in the back garden, we can at least consider options for retaining planting pockets or putting in a green roof or new hedge in its place.
What can I do to help?
Embrace your garden, backyard, window-box, or allotment as a haven for biodiversity by stocking it with a wide variety of plants and gardening in a way that supports a diversity of species. This might mean embracing mosses and lichens, creating flower-rich lawns, feeding the soil by making garden compost, providing nectar-rich flowering plants over a long season or simply putting water and bird feeders out. Don't forget, without bees to pollinate plants, we'd struggle to grow a lot of our fruit and veg, and many other plants would fail to set viable seeds and berries.