Jo McKerr wonders if conventional ideas of wildlife-friendly gardens are old hat and it\u2019s now time to put nature at the forefront of our thinking on gardening. Words Jo McKerr, Illustration Rosanna Morris <\/p>
Creating gardens with wildlife<\/a> in mind has been accepted garden practice for the past 50 years. But a new school of thought coming out of environmental activism suggests that our traditional approach to making spaces that are wildlife-friendly has been clouded by human bias that still puts human needs first, and leaves nature as a tokenistic afterthought. <\/p> You may also like<\/strong><\/p> Notions about \u2018nature-first\u2019 gardening and ecocentric or interspecies design have begun to come to the fore, describing an attitude towards gardens that seeks to put Nature in the driving seat. If we put the needs of the more-than-human species that live in our gardens on a par with our own needs, what will our gardens look like? Can we even garden anymore?\u00a0Style and taste have dominated garden design for much of the past century. The biggest shift that ecocentric and biocentric design asks the gardener to make is to put a philosophy at the centre of their ideas and practice in the garden. This doesn\u2019t mean to say that nature-first gardens don\u2019t have beauty, but they don\u2019t have a commonality of look.<\/p> This doesn\u2019t mean to say that nature-first gardens don\u2019t have beauty, but they don\u2019t have a commonality of look.<\/p><\/blockquote> Emphasising the protection and importance of living things and naturally occurring things and de-emphasising human needs may seem a lot like wildlife gardening, until it dawns that there are an estimated one billion forms of life, and 10,000 different species of organism living in a teaspoon of your topsoil, and there isn\u2019t a handy gardening book explaining \u2018how to\u2019 and which monthly jobs you should be doing to look after their needs.<\/p> You may also like<\/strong><\/p> Rather than be overwhelmed by the amount of ecological knowledge we don\u2019t yet possess, or the crippling responsibility of being accountable for so much \u2018life\u2019, proponents of this approach to garden-making flip the vast unknown on its head, and convert it into a huge possibility to experiment, learn and grow differently. In much the same manner as a \u2018rewilding<\/a>\u2019 approach to conservation, an ecologically positive garden aims to be process-led rather than goals-orientated. Instead of expecting to know what needs those who use your garden have, a garden is an opportunity to discover and collaborate with who and what lives around you.<\/p> Reframing our relationship with plants is key for American designer Ben Vogt, who creates gardens where lawns<\/a> are replaced with prairie plantings<\/a>, and where plants are much more than seasonal colour. They are communities that co-exist in a dynamic landscape that provides food and habitat for local invertebrates and others that depend on them. Many of these indigenous prairie plants are better adapted to the conditions of the regional environment, so require fewer resources to grow. The density and diversity of this type of planting means that \u2018weeds<\/a>\u2019 have less room to grow and establish and that \u2018pests\u2019 are welcomed as part of a cycle of life that will find its own balance. The biomass of the planting is so dense that some losses in the plants are not noticed among the leafy abundance. Pests and diseases have evolved for a monoculture system, so plant variety and health means that they are unable to dominate.<\/p> Pests and diseases have evolved for a monoculture system, so plant variety and health means that they are unable to dominate<\/p><\/blockquote> From a European perspective, the ability of plants to colonise, naturalise and co-exist within a site drives the design concept for those such as French landscape architect Gilles Cl\u00e9ment, who is inspired by the plant communities of wastelands. These communities, he believes, can teach us a lot about the resilience and regenerative properties of plants as we garden in a changing climate.<\/p> Considering soil<\/a> as a living system that supports all life above ground, and recognising plants as autonomous, means that gardening these spaces radically shifts from a maintenance chore to an elevated complex stewardship that mixes soil science with ecology and botany. Much of the management of these new spaces combines traditional ecological knowledge from indigenous peoples with the latest thinking about soil ecologies and pollinators<\/a> to create a heady mix. In many ways, it is the steep learning curve that those who garden these nature-centric gardens need to go on that is the biggest obstacle to their progress. Gardening is still seen as a low-paid, low-skill job, and if we are to move forward, we need to recognise gardeners as the crucial keystone species on which these gardens now depend.<\/p>