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Introduction to public benefits of wildlife gardening
This may seem an odd category, but it reflects both the charitable status of the Wildlife Gardening Forum, and how important we feel it is that everyone contributes what they can to protecting garden wildlife for everyone.
Much of our site is taken up the broadly educational topics of the science behind wildlife gardening, and the environmental issues of the plants and animals we are seeking to help to thrive in our gardens. Wildlife gardening has other benefits as well, and these are not only for wildlife gardeners, but for society in general. By managing their gardens for wildlife and beauty, gardeners provide an immense public benefit by enhancing the local environment, promoting sustainability, and providing a major conservation resource for the benefit of everyone.
We have broken public benefits into three categories:
Gardens and people provides access to the growing but rather anecdotal evidence of how important green spaces and gardens full of life are for our the mental and physical health of city people. There is evidence that gardening and food production, as well as semi-natural green space can help social cohesion. More and more schools are learning the benefits for education of outdoor learning and wildlife areas. People cannot grow and develop healthily in nature-free environments, and we want to help policy makers understand these issues.
This theme runs into Urban gardens. What do people mean by the term “Green Infrastructure”, and how can we protect gardens, and bring good environmental design into our buildings and developments? It is fair to say that current planning laws do not work well for urban wildlife and especially not to protect established wildlife-full gardens. There are so many opportunities for better planning of green space "blue space" or rivers and wetlands, and for better building design for people and wildlife.
There are commercial interests in wildlife gardening as well, as any visit to a garden centre will reveal. We as a Forum are delighted at the ways that commerce can encourage better garden management for wildlife, but there are some caveats and pitfalls as well as opportunities, and we cover some of these in Garden businesses.
Introduction to public benefits of wildlife gardening
This may seem an odd category, but it reflects both the charitable status of the Wildlife Gardening Forum, and how important we feel it is that everyone contributes what they can to protecting garden wildlife for everyone.
Much of our site is taken up the broadly educational topics of the science behind wildlife gardening, and the environmental issues of the plants and animals we are seeking to help to thrive in our gardens. Wildlife gardening has other benefits as well, and these are not only for wildlife gardeners, but for society in general. By managing their gardens for wildlife and beauty, gardeners provide an immense public benefit by enhancing the local environment, promoting sustainability, and providing a major conservation resource for the benefit of everyone.
We have broken public benefits into three categories:
Gardens and people provides access to the growing but rather anecdotal evidence of how important green spaces and gardens full of life are for our the mental and physical health of city people. There is evidence that gardening and food production, as well as semi-natural green space can help social cohesion. More and more schools are learning the benefits for education of outdoor learning and wildlife areas. People cannot grow and develop healthily in nature-free environments, and we want to help policy makers understand these issues.
This theme runs into Urban gardens. What do people mean by the term “Green Infrastructure”, and how can we protect gardens, and bring good environmental design into our buildings and developments? It is fair to say that current planning laws do not work well for urban wildlife and especially not to protect established wildlife-full gardens. There are so many opportunities for better planning of green space "blue space" or rivers and wetlands, and for better building design for people and wildlife.
There are commercial interests in wildlife gardening as well, as any visit to a garden centre will reveal. We as a Forum are delighted at the ways that commerce can encourage better garden management for wildlife, but there are some caveats and pitfalls as well as opportunities, and we cover some of these in Garden businesses.
