IF YOU WANT EVIDENCE for the importance of gardens for wildlife, just look at the Biodiversity in Urban Gardens in Sheffield (BUGS) project, run by researchers from the University of Sheffield in the early 2000s.
“The other thing to think about is how gardens increase people’s positive engagement with wildlife.” What they found was ground-breaking – 33km2 of potential wildlife habitat covering 23 per cent of the city, with an estimated 360,000 trees more than 2m tall, 45,000 nestboxes, 25,000 ponds, and 50,000 compost heaps.
In surveys in 61 of those gardens, the researchers identified 1,166 vascular plant species – the most biodiverse contained 248 alone. There was a rich profusion of invertebrates from a wide range of taxonomic groups, including bumblebees, hoverflies, beetles and spiders.
But, says professor Kevin…