Wildlife garden

A wildlife garden (in the Loire-Atlantique in western France)

A wildlife garden (or habitat garden or backyard restoration) is an environment created with the purpose to serve as a sustainable haven for surrounding wildlife. Wildlife gardens contain a variety of habitats that cater to native and local plants, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects, mammals and so on, and are meant to sustain locally native flora and fauna.[1] Other names this type of gardening goes by can vary, prominent ones being habitat, ecology, and conservation gardening.

Both public and private gardens can be specifically transformed to attract the native wildlife, and in doing so, provide a natural array of support through available shelter and sustenance.[2] This method of gardening can be a form of restoration in private gardens as much as those in public, as they contribute to connectivity due to the variability of their scattered locations, as well as an increased habitat availability.[3]

Establishing a garden that emulates the environment before the residence was built and/or renders the garden similar to intact wild areas nearby (rewilding) will allow natural systems to interact and establish an equilibrium, ultimately minimizing the need for gardener maintenance and intervention. Wildlife gardens can also play an essential role in biological pest control, and also promote biodiversity, native plantings, and generally benefit the wider environment.[4] Some environmental benefits include the reduction in pest populations through the natural mechanism of biological pest control, by helping reduce the need for pesticides.[2] Habitat gardens also provide the environment an ecosystem service by recharging aquifers by intercepting rainfall.[5]

  1. ^ Mumaw, Laura; Mata, Luis (August 2022). "Wildlife gardening: an urban nexus of social and ecological relationships". Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. 20 (6): 379–385. doi:10.1002/fee.2484. ISSN 1540-9295.
  2. ^ a b "Habitat Gardening". California Native Plant Society. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
  3. ^ Mimet, Anne; Kerbiriou, Christian; Simon, Laurent; Julien, Jean-Francois; Raymond, Richard (2020-01-01). "Contribution of private gardens to habitat availability, connectivity and conservation of the common pipistrelle in Paris". Landscape and Urban Planning. 193: 103671. doi:10.1016/j.landurbplan.2019.103671. ISSN 0169-2046.
  4. ^ Tallamy, D. W. (2020). Nature's Best Hope: A New Approach to Conservation that Starts in Your Yard. Timber Press.
  5. ^ Heiser, Carol A. (2015). "Habitat Gardening for Wildlife" (PDF). Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources. Retrieved 30 March 2023.