5 ways to build biodiversity

Disturbing the soil here and there is in itself a help, but there are lots of other little things we can do to create a healthy environment for insects and wildlife. Here are five small steps (with big biodiversity gains) to get you started.

• Create several different habitats in your garden to build biodiversity – maybe sunny and shady areas, moist and dry spots, and disturbed and undisturbed soil zones.
• Eliminate pesticides and herbicides from your garden. Opt for manual removal of weeds and pests, or use one of the many organic sprays available.
• Tidy or clean up your garden in a staggered fashion. The meadows at the Great Dixter garden in England, for instance, are cut over time in a form of mosaic mowing. This minimises the experience of mass homelessness in species that live in the longer grasses.
• Allow for some untidiness in your own garden (with consideration for bushfire risk), and work on rebranding those elements of messiness as conservation zones. Small piles of woody offcuts make for very effective insect hotels, for instance.
• Grow some different plants to your neighbours to help improve the communal diversity of the habitats in your area. It might be the one part of your life in which deliberately standing out from the crowd is truly beneficial!

Want more birds in your garden? Check out this article.

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