‘Just one change in your garden can really make a difference’

Read the RHS Sustainability Strategy in full

What does this target mean?

Gardens play an essential role as habitats for a wide range of biodiversity

The variety of living organisms (plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms) in a particular environment. Boosting the biodiversity of your garden has many benefits, including supporting wildlife, improving soil health and reducing the likelihood of pest and disease problems.

, from birds and pollinators to fungi. At the RHS we aim to demonstrate the value of gardens and enhance biodiversity on our own estates and in cultivated spaces throughout the UK.

We are in a global biodiversity crisis, which is happening right now alongside the climate crisis, and means that because of human actions we are quickly losing species and habitats. Land-use change, pesticide application, and fossil fuel consumption are behind a massive decline in biodiversity, and in the UK we witnessed the loss of one thirdof our wild pollinating insects and moths by 2020 and we are considered one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world.

UK gardens combined cover an area twice the size of Somerset, and are unique biodiverse habitats, with 400,000 different types of plant in cultivation. This represents a remarkable resource, although it is undervalued and threatened due to lack of awareness. Sadly, over time some of these plants have already become extinct. However, we know that gardens can have a huge positive impact on biodiversity.

It is the RHS’ mission to spread this message far and wide, and provide encouragement, support research and information to enable the UK’s 30 million gardeners to play their part. We will also work with policy makers and land managers to enhance cultivated spaces for biodiversity.

Promoting garden plant diversity

The way we manage our gardens is key to unlocking benefits for biodiversity. Every gardener can make a difference, whether their space is large or small

Why should gardeners care about this?

The decline in biodiversity is alarming, not just globally but in our back gardens too. While lots of it is unseen, all of it matters.

Ordinary gardens contain an abundance of wildlife. Scientist Jennifer Owen recorded 2,673 species of animals and plants in her own suburban garden over a 30 year period, many of them insects and other invertebrates, and some new to science.

Healthy garden ecosystems comprising plants, insects, other animals and fungi are vital for the health of our towns and cities, from helping with pollinating our crops to recycling nutrients

To grow well, plants need a wide range of nutrients in various amounts, depending on the individual plant and its stage of growth. The three key nutrients usually taken up from the soil are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Plants also need carbon, oxygen and hydrogen to make carbohydrates — their main energy source. Carbon and oxygen come from the air as carbon dioxide, while hydrogen is drawn from water absorbed by the roots. Other important soil nutrients include magnesium, calcium and sulphur. Most garden soils contain enough of these nutrients to support healthy plant growth.

. They improve our own health and wellbeing too!

Cultivated garden plants are often undervalued, but they provide key resources for pollinators, including pollen and nectar

Sweet liquid mainly produced by flowers to attract pollinators. Honeybees make honey from nectar.

for food across the seasons – which will be especially important as seasons shift as a result of climate change. Cultivated plants also provide other environmental benefits such as pollution capture, temperature moderation, noise filtering and reducing flooding. The greater the diversity of plants in our gardens, the greater the chance of finding the best plants to sustainably improve our urban areas.

A garden that supports a healthy ecosystem will contain a myriad of beneficial species that help to look after your plants

What have we already done?

Pioneering research projects

We have built on our considerable research into how gardens promote and support biodiversity. The groundbreaking Plants for Bugs project demonstrated how filling a garden with a variety of plants supports a wide range of invertebrates, from bees to ground beetles, springtails and woodlice.

A review of the RHS Plants for Pollinators lists and logo has strengthened our evidence and identified further research avenues. This enables gardeners to confidently, quickly and easily choose plants that will support pollinators.

Spreading the message

Through our social media, website, magazines, books, RHS Gardening Advice, and community outreach, we’re spreading the biodiversity-positive gardening message to a wide and diverse audience. We encourage wildlife and pollinator

Anything that moves pollen e.g. from one flower to another. Insects such as bees are important pollinators.

-friendly gardening through ourWild About Gardens newsletter, participating in Bees’ Needs Weekand supporting Insect Week.

Collaboration and partnerships

We’re working with partner organisations to highlight the ways horticulture and wildlife conservation can collaborate, including our partnership with The Wildlife Trusts on the Wild About Gardens campaign which inspires action for nature in gardens.

Supporting biodiversity as a core RHS value

Within our own gardens and wider estates, we are running biodiversity surveys of key species groups including bats, birds, butterflies and bumblebees. We will use this information and future monitoring to conserve and enhance the value of our land as habitat. It is important that we lead by example to demonstrate what positive steps can be taken.

Supporting biodiversity is a key element of all our activities. Features designed to encourage as much garden life as possible, many of which we began atRHS Hilltop, are now becoming common across our gardens:

• Dead hedges, diverse planting, water features designed for wildlife and more.
• Management regimes on wider RHS estates, such as areas of woodland, are being adapted to encourage wildlife.
• Using volunteers and professional ecologists, we have surveyed the biodiversity of our gardens and estates, and gathered ‘baseline’ data on the animals, fungi and plants found in them.
• We have established staff biodiversity groups at each garden and the first RHS staff biodiversity conference was held in 2024, enabling a sharing of ideas, experiences and celebrating the wildlife of our gardens.
• Surveys that will enable the society to meet Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) requirements for developments have been carried out across our estates. These are also helping to inform and guide research to better recognise gardens as the biodiverse habitats they are.

A dead hedge in the Pinetum at RHS Wisley, repurposing ‘waste’ woody material from the garden into a design feature that provides habitat

Assessing our cultivated plants

Cultivated plants are at the heart of the RHS, but we need to understand the impact climate change will have. The RHS has a long tradition of growing a wide range of cultivated plants, with over 35,000 different kinds of plant being grown in our five gardens.

The RHS takes care of more than 6,000 plants that are considered threatened in cultivation, and holds 30National Plant Collections.

We have been documenting plants in cultivation, most notably in our reference collection of dried preserved specimens, the RHS Herbarium, which now holds representatives of over 37,000 plant taxa.

We have assessed our plant collections in the gardens and implemented a propagation and distribution plan to help prepare for the effects of climate change.

The RHS Herbarium is the largest in the UK dedicated to ornamental plants and contains more than 95,000 specimens, now available to view online through RHS Digital Collections

What are we going to do?

Continue to grow within the RHS

• We will continue to adapt the way we look after our gardens, and to be biodiversity positive by recording our wildlife (animals, plants and fungi) and developing action plans to preserve and enhance the biodiversity supported by our gardens and estates.
• We will measure the impacts of all our activities and use this to inform our research and advice to gardeners, building on the RHS Plants for Bugs and Plants for Pollinators.
• We will continue to encourage a ‘biodiversity positive’ attitude across our staff and volunteers, providing support to undertake wildlife-related activities within their roles and embed consideration for biodiversity into our ways of working.

Encourage gardeners to work with us

• Ensure gardeners view their gardens as valuable habitats, and research how to encourage healthy balanced garden ecosystems, where creatures that feed on cultivated plants, their predators, and decomposers such as fungi are supported.
• Encourage gardeners to record the plants in their gardens using theRHS Grow app to help obtain a more accurate measure of which and how many plants are in cultivation in the UK, and monitor how these change with the climate.

Promote the value of gardens to policy makers

Our biodiversity researchfocuses on expanding evidence of how these unique garden ecosystems contribute to biodiversity. The results from RHS Science and our Plants for Purpose project will inform government policy and advice, championing the vital role of gardens.

Read more about our targets...

Net Positive for Nature

Target 1: Climate positive by 2030

Target 2: Biodiversity positive by 2025

Target 3: Biosecurity neutral by 2025

Target 4: Water neutral by 2030

Target 5: Circular plastic by 2030

Target 6: Zero waste to landfill by 2030

Net Positive for People

Target 1: Enable more people to enjoy the benefits of gardening

Target 2: Design a new evidence-based blueprint for wellbeing gardens by 2025

Target 3: Develop and embed sustainable horticulture within education, research and training

Target 4: Accelerate equality, diversity and inclusion