Gardening For The Local Ecosystem
April 2025, By Caleb Bendrey
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by environmental issues and by the lists of suggestions for how to help. As someone who has not had a garden in my adult life, a fair number of these strategies did not apply to me. However, when I moved recently, I suddenly had a little patch of earth, and what felt like a new responsibility to the environment.
Gardening Strategies
It was certainly a lot to look through – long lists on the most effective ways to grow your own produce, the best plants to cool down the immediate ecosystem, and the so-called ‘super-plants’ that can help to reduce pollution. However, as someone who has a particular interest in insects, I opted to look at flowers that support pollinators. It’s also helpful that this is one of the simpler ways to help the environment, and one that is more renter-friendly than installing full hedges or massive trees.
In fact, many of the things that can help gardens become more environmentally friendly are simple. One of the biggest ways is to let plants grow, instead of trimming them back when they put a leaf out of line. Leaving a section of your garden to become ‘overgrown’, or allowing wildflowers to stick around in your lawn, can help local species immeasurably. Even just mowing less frequently helps biodiversity, and can reduce the number of pest species in lawns.
The plan
Seeds for pollinator-friendly flowers are easy to find; most gardening shops have packs specifically tailored for this. These packs often have a spread of flowers that help out butterflies and bees alike, which can help bring further biodiversity to the mini ecosystem in your garden. I opted to buy one of these and attempt to raise seedlings within my flat. Indoor plants are also known to improve well-being in several ways, so these budding flowers are having a positive effect even before they set out to assist the bees.
How’s it going
So far, it’s all going very well – my home is looking livelier than ever with pots of seedlings lining my window sills, and the wildflowers and bedding plants I’ve let grow further in my garden are already attracting bees and hoverflies. With a little more work, my garden should be teeming with life by the time summer rolls around, and will hopefully do its part in the local ecosystem.
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