In recent days, I have taken to reading a book that has opened my eyes to much of my city Bangalore’s ecological history. Nature in the City: Bengaluru in the Past, Present and Future, authored by Harini Nagendra, ecologist and Professor of Sustainability at Azim Premji University explores urban green spaces in the city, including parks, slums, streets and lakes.
However, what stayed with me was a chapter on home gardens, and their role in supporting much of a city’s biodiversity.
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In this age of increased urbanization, habitat destruction and deforestation, it’s easy to feel powerless about the ever reducing greenscape around us. This has especially had an impact on biodiversity, with many native birds and animals facing extirpation over the years.
Ajay Raghavan, Co-founder, Initiative for Climate Action, a non-profit working on climate action in Bangalore, discusses a prevailing emphasis of aesthetics over biodiversity in city planning.
“If you look at the history of Bangalore, it was largely planned with an aesthetic, seasonal sense, where they lined the streets up with different trees, expecting that through the year one would be in bloom. It wasn’t created to try and foster the birds that were in this ecosystem. I don’t think too many cities have given that a thought in the way they’ve constructed their green spaces — they’ve looked at it mainly as lung spaces. ” he says.
This is where home gardens can play a crucial role. Nagendra sees home gardens as a way for each one of us to make a difference, however small, in supporting the city’s biodiversity by providing a safe space to urban wildlife.
“Domestic gardens can play a unique and important role in the support of biodiversity in a rapidly growing city like Bengaluru, providing one of the most important ways in which citizens can participate in nurturing nature in the city on a large scale.” she writes.
Dr. Govind Singh, Director, Delhi Greens, an NGO spreading the message of green environment and sustainable development, agrees.
“Home gardens act like micro-ecological corridors, especially for birds and insects. In order to make our gardens attractive to urban wildlife, we do need to make and keep them more biodiverse.” he says.
So what does it take to nurture a domestic garden conducive to a wide variety of species? At the individual level, it only asks that we make conscious, well-informed decisions in our gardening practices.
Gardens as a home for biodiversity
Methods such as biodiversity gardening and wildlife gardening have developed to promote practices that enrich your garden with the right plants and implements to house a plethora of species.
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The British Trust of Ornithology explains the benefits of wildlife gardening. “A garden that is good for wildlife is likely to be a stable ecosystem in its own right, integrated with the landscape around it and providing a diversity of micro-habitats within its boundaries. A stable, diverse system is unlikely to be over-dominated by any one species or group of organisms. In practical terms, this means that you should have fewer problems with pest or weed species and be less prone to outbreaks of disease among the plants that you grow.”
What you can do
While every urban ecosystem requires a distinct understanding of its native flora and fauna, some key features have a universal propensity to attract birds, pollinating insects and soil microorganisms into your garden.
1. Avoid the use of pesticides and insecticides in your garden
We spoke to Dr. Vandana Krishnamurthy, CEO and Co-founder, Urban Mali, a gardening enterprise that sets up and maintains gardens across Bangalore city about gardening with the aim of attracting a wider variety of species.
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“One of the biggest problems is the loss of biodiversity because of intensive chemical usage, especially in gardens. Many people think when they pump chemicals into their gardens, their flowers will bloom or their vegetables will yield. That’s the biggest deterrent to butterflies and bees; they wouldn’t come into a garden that has chemicals at all. On the other hand, when we’re setting up a garden itself, we see butterflies and bees come in, showing that smaller spaces can also create a lovely space for food and shelter for insect fauna. ” she explains.
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Urban Mali’s gardeners also try to sensitize people to organisms beneficial to their gardens.
“We’re trying to get people to understand which insects are beneficial and which ones are going to harm your plants. The butterflies, bees, ladybugs, dragonflies, and the caterpillars that eat your leaves, are all beneficial insects. It’s okay to sacrifice a few of your plants to support the butterfly or moth life cycle.” she says.
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2. Create a pond to introduce an aquatic ecosystem into your garden
Running water can also attract aquatic birds, and other aquatic wildlife like frogs and dragonflies.
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3. Grow plants that can act as sources of nectar for insects
Usually, the more flowers, and the more nectar and pollen plants contain, the more they are preferred by pollinators. Having fruit-bearing trees can also attract squirrels.
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“If you have a slightly larger garden, you’ll definitely see squirrels. And if they are eating your fruits, it means they taste good, because if it is laden with chemicals or you’re not taking care of it, they are not going to touch it.” Dr. Krishnamurthy adds.
4. Have mostly native plants that do not require fertilizers to grow well
Native trees most attractive to birds include jamun, and other staples of Indian gardens like mango and neem.
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5. Install artificial sites for feeding, nesting by birds, bats or insects, and leave some corners of the garden untended (even if it feels counter-intuitive) to allow the grass to grow long
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“Those with larger spaces like terraces, or villa gardens with a front yard and backyard can put out bird feeders and bird baths. If you’re in the outskirts, you’ll see a range of birds from sunbirds to parakeets and bulbuls in your garden. You’ll definitely see them come for a drink of water, especially in the summer, and for the millets you put in as bird food.” Dr. Krishnamurthy says.
Dr. Singh recommends an external hedge with climbers (on the external side of the balcony, for instance), that could help attract birds and butterflies, since they will feel safe.
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It’s evident that this guidance is only helpful for those with the luxury of large, sprawling gardens. Increased urbanization and population expansion has made spacious home gardens hard to come by for many, especially those that live in the heart of the city.
When unable to cultivate in spaces large enough to support water bodies like ponds, or even big trees, how can the home gardener still do their bit in making their spaces, however small, safe for urban wildlife?
Adapting to changing times
The message to protect biodiversity is straightforward, but the complexities of changing urban ecology and resource constraints less so.
Raghavan pictures the future of home gardening in shrinking green cover.
“If you look at most cities across the world now, or most modern cities, there isn’t a lot of home gardening. Most of the green comes from public spaces. The ability of insects and birds, etc. to thrive comes from the concentration of keeping public spaces green. With all the construction around urban Bangalore, it doesn’t even allow for people to grow green spaces.” he says.
However, home gardens may not see an untimely death, as we are what Dr. Krishnamurthy calls “naturally biophilic”. Biophilia has been defined as “the connections that human beings subconsciously seek with the rest of life.”
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“You cannot discount the fact that everybody wants to have a green space. We are humans, we are naturally biophilic. When you buy a house or move to a rented house, and you see it has balconies or a front yard, the first thing you will think about is having a garden. People in Bangalore especially, have a sense of creating a green space where they can feel good. So I don’t think we will reach a point where people don’t want to have home gardens.” she opines.
Dr. Singh hopes the lack of space will instead push us to be more strategic in planning our home gardens.
“The space, as goes the popular saying, should mainly be in your heart and mind! In fact, as space becomes a constraint, it should only encourage citizens to maintain strategically designed home gardens that can also help clean indoor air, for instance.” he says.
While that is wonderful news, how can we offset the impact of large-scale habitat degradation in our humble gardens?
Dr. Singh offers several suggestions. “Citizens should make themselves aware about the urban biodiversity around them and also learn about basic host-plants that are more frequently visited by birds, butterflies, etc. This could be very exciting for home garden owners. Environmental NGOs should develop educational material to sensitize citizens. Home gardens should be taken up as a discussion point in RWA meetings and community leaders should encourage these in public meetings. ”
Much like other conservation efforts, this too requires the mobilization and collaboration of communities to make a difference.
“At a community level, people need to get together to understand that as a city, we are losing our biodiversity. We can still convert our community gardens into spaces that attract a lot more biodiversity.” Dr. Krishnamurthy suggests.
Many of these existing community spaces have already seen some success.
“Home gardens have the unique potential of bringing people together. A green balcony, backyard or rooftop is not only an attractive sight, it also encourages neighboring residents to do something similar. The growing of edibles is already helping the connectedness between residents in certain neighborhoods through their exchange or barter.” says Dr. Singh.
“We work with a lot of communities who have a collective mindset of wanting to attract a lot more birds and insects and ensuring their spaces are as pristine and natural as possible. In a community with varied people, it takes a lot to get everyone to think like you, but at the end of the day, after this pandemic, it has become very obvious that we have to take care of nature.” Dr. Krishnamurthy adds.
As the green spaces in our cities continue to diminish, urban wildlife may soon have nowhere to go. We have an opportunity to support them, both at an individual and community level by making our green spaces theirs too.
By Aashika Ravi