In the past decade in North America, gardeners have been slowly moving towards having more and more native plants in their gardens. People like Doug Tallamy have led the way, explaining that native plants provide valuable pollen and habitat for native insects, and that those insects feed native birds. Adding natives was an easy win for the gardener who wanted to improve the ecological health of their garden and contribute to biodiversity.
One place that has resisted this is the UK. The home of both precisely manicured gardens and riotous cottage gardens, introducing more native species – or weeds, as they were widely perceived - never really caught the public attention.
But lately a rewilding movement has emerged in Britain that began the difficult process of shifting public tastes away from the type of exotic species that occupied places like Kew Garden, to the local plants and flowers found mainly in ditches and hedgerows.
This all came to a head last week, in a controversial decision at the Chelsea Flower Show, where the winner of best in show was a rewilded garden that featured a dam, sticks that had been gnawed by beavers, and a ‘shabby’ shed with a corrugated iron roof.
The win was the culmination of years of work by rewilding enthusiasts that had already produced some victories like the widely duplicated ‘no mow may’ that had spread to countries around the world.
The question that they, and others, have been attempting to answer is: just how much good can be done by gardeners when it comes to protecting biodiversity and wildlife in the city?
The answer is, quite a bit. For one, native pollinators like solitary bees often don’t have the type of range we normally associate with honey bees. While non-native bees are known to travel several kilometers in search of pollen and nectar, some solitary bees have a range as short as 73 metres. A range that necessitates closely packed gardens of a variety of flowers, optimally 150 metres apart. Just like you’d find in a city.
Similarly, back yard gardens, if planted correctly, can attract a wide range of birds and provide shelter, food and water for migrating birds on their long routes from wintering grounds to summer breeding areas.
And of course, everybody knows someone who grows milkweed to feed and host the caterpillars of monarch butterflies as they prepare to make their epic journey to Mexico every fall.
Ecologists, who for decades focused almost exclusively on preserving natural spaces outside of cities – something that remains vital – have woken up to the value of promoting biodiversity in cities.
One estimate is that 20% of the biodiversity of birds is hosted in cities, and species like oak and silver maple in the right environments can host hundreds of species of caterpillars, many endangered or at risk.
Ironically, some of the early data on city biodiversity came from the UK. With their strong tradition of allotment gardens, these were the one space in a city that was often encouraged to grow a bit wild, and with food for pollinators like vegetable plants, fruit trees, and weeds around the margins, they were found to be teeming with a wide range of insects and other wildlife.
Now, the final pieces of resistance to native pollinator gardens may be starting to fall as municipalities in Canada and elsewhere – some voluntarily, and others forced to by the courts – begin updating their urban beauty by-laws to include native plants.
A couple in Smith Falls, ON recently won a court battle with the city which had demanded they uproot their native plant front yard and replace it with something deemed more acceptable. The couple went to Ontario superior court and the city rescinded its order. The couple’s garden will remain.
This echoes other similar cases around Canada where cities’ policies, and neighbours’ tastes, haven’t caught up with the realities of the bio-diversity crises. Slowly municipalities are starting to come around.
This is good news for those of us who love our native plants, and the bees and birds (and bunnies and the occasional groundhog) they support. The hope is that as more municipalities come on board, that cities can expand their role as vital pieces of the biodiversity puzzle.
Building on Flood Plains is the Real Source of Flooding Damage
In a study remarkable for its simplicity, and in many ways obviousness, the Globe and Mail has concluded that a significant amount of the damage caused by flooding in Canada comes about because we insist on building on flood plains.
In a study of 150 cities across Canada over 10,000 people, roughly a third of them had at least one in ten buildings on a flood plain.
As we pointed out in December, flood plains are a popular place to build because of their agricultural value, but perhaps it’s time for a different strategy for cities.
Price of Oil is the Problem
Harkening back to his days as one of the leaders in the Peak Oil community, Andrew Nikiforuk has a fascinating piece in the Tyee pointing the finger for inflation directly at the skyrocketing cost of oil.
As Nikiforuk points out, oil and gas power pretty much our entire economy, and when it goes up in price, so does everything else, from consumer goods to food to fertilizer.
It’s an interesting exploration in two parts and is worth a read.
David Suzuki the Actor
In a fascinating twist, David Suzuki is appearing on June 9th at Toronto’s Luminato Festival alongside his longtime partner Tara Cullis in a play called What you Won’t do for Love. It’s a look back at a lifetime of activism, and what it takes to win hearts and minds.
The book will be available from Coach House books for those who can’t get to Toronto to see the play, or you can catch my conversation with David on my podcast page, with a special sneak peek just for newsletter subscribers.
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