In an extract from her new book, The Climate Change Resilient Vegetable Garden, Kim Stoddart explains how to boost biodiversity to help protect plants and gardens
A greater risk of pest and disease unfortunately form one of the main threats of our changing climate. Extreme weather events can weaken plants. At the same time, warmer, wetter seasons can create conditions where new and existing pests proliferate, with potentially more breeding, overwintering, migratory opportunities overall. This means more pests and more weakened plants that may be more susceptible to attack.
Whichever way you look at it, natural predators are going to be an important ally. The more you can create a more balanced ecosystem with plenty of these natural helpers around, the better your garden will be. It will be much harder for one type of creature to get out of control and cause damage to your precious plants.
Wildlife, wildflowers, and even some weeds have a valuable role to play in a garden or allotment, creating a natural balance and valuable, diverse habitats where so-called pests can become food for something else. This doesn’t mean you want your garden entirely overgrown or messy. Far from it. It’s just that the natural world shouldn’t be sidelined. It should be welcomed in with gusto to create a space that is attractive and truly healthy and teeming with life, vitality, and a natural resilient order.
All creatures have a role to play
Many often-maligned insects are either beneficial predators or useful in the food chain overall. And it’s really not hard to welcome wildlife in. Maybe begin by allowing a few areas of grass to grow a little longer, creating a few corners where weeds will be allowed to move in. Or plant a few wildflowers in and around your garden where they’ll provide a welcome splash of colour in the process.
Ground cover is very important for wildlife, so why not create a leaf or wood pile somewhere, let some salad leaves or herbs spread out, mature, and flower? A wildlife pond is incredibly easy to create from salvaged materials, too.
Little by little, the natural world will be better able to lend a helping hand. The more you allow it, the more you will see and understand the bigger picture of synchronicity and satisfaction to be found therein. The sight of beetles, bugs, or butterflies fluttering on by; bees, wasps, and hover flies busy pollinating plants; and birds hectically but adorably flying overhead can’t fail to bring happiness and hope for the future of us all.
Make your garden an eat-and-beeaten world
In permaculture principles, a pest problem is as indication that predators are required to restore the balance. Although this idea of biodiversity and natural order isn’t something that will immediately happen overnight, wildlife and nature will move in quickly if given ha
