Exploring Ideas: Designing Outdoor Living Spaces
Imagine waking up to the sweet sounds of birds chirping, fresh fragrances of flowers, and having your own supply of fresh organic fruits and vegetables. If this sounds like your dream garden, it’s time for you to create a private biodiverse garden at your home.
What is a Biodiverse Garden?
A biodiverse garden is just what its name suggests – a garden that embraces and promotes natural biodiversity.
In other words, a biodiverse garden is one with a healthy diversity of plants, birds, insects, and food crops, similar to the natural ecosystem. A biodiverse garden serves as a food source for humans and contributes to improving the environment and restoring the natural ecological balance that widespread urbanization has significantly reduced.
How Can You Create a Biodiverse Garden at Your Home?
Whether you have finally decided to convert your long-ignored backyard into a garden brimming with life or you’re redesigning your existing garden to make it more diverse, here are some useful tips to help you get started:
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Choose a Variety of Native Plants
The most basic characteristic of a biodiverse garden is diversity. You need to have a variety of plants in all colors, shapes, and sizes. The more species of plants you have in your garden, the greater variety of wildlife and insects it will attract and the more beneficial it will be to you and the environment.
Grow a variety of flowering plants, shrubs, trees, herbs, vegetables, and fruits in your garden. Choose native species for the best results. Native plant species are not only well-adapted to the climate and soil, but they also attract beneficial insects, wildlife, and pollinators.
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Choose both Evergreen and Seasonal Varieties
If you want to keep your garden alive and equally beneficial all year round, grow both seasonal and evergreen plants in all categories.
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Avoid Using Harsh Chemicals
If you’re new to gardening, it is important to be aware that you can keep your plants healthy without using herbicides and fertilizers and you should avoid using chemicals to build a truly biodiverse garden. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are equally harmful to wildlife, insects, and humans. Therefore, avoid using them as much as possible and look for organic alternatives.
As the garden becomes more diverse, pests are kept under control naturally by beneficial insects and birds in the biodiverse gardens.
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Grow Heirloom Varieties of Fruits and Vegetables
Commercial agriculture is limited to only a few varieties of fruits and vegetables, which poses a threat to several heirloom varieties. Play your part in preserving the heirloom varieties and fight against the loss of biodiversity in agriculture and preserve the heirloom varieties of fruits and vegetables by growing them in your home garden and saving their seeds.
Consult a Landscape Designer for Best Results
Creating a biodiverse garden isn’t just about planting a variety of trees, shrubs, herbs, veggies, and fruits randomly and hoping that they grow and thrive. It involves planning, careful selection of plant species, and their strategic placement. Following these steps will make sure your garden is biodiverse, productive, and aesthetically appealing. This is where a professional landscape designer can help!
If you’re looking for a professional landscaping company in Alexandria, Virginia, we have you covered! We have been providing landscape design services in Alexandria, Virginia, since 1945. We can help you grow a truly biodiverse and productive garden. Contact us now to get started!
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