Biodiversity in Beaconsfield

For many years, spending time in the garden felt more like yard work than gardening. The lawn was infested with white grubs, several aggressive plants were outcompeting everything around them, and the garden was crowded with impulse plant buys and bore little resemblance to nature’s designs. The solution, for us, was to create a more biodiverse garden that included native plant communities that share light and space well.

After several years of working to create a biodiverse garden, we are starting to see nature settle in around us. The monocultures are gone or severely restricted. Skunks, rabbits, racoons, and marmots are regular visitors. So are monarchs and bees of every shape and size. This year, the highlight of the gardening season was the robins’ nest in our front door lantern, build from the tall grass we cut back and left on the ground.

With rewards like that, we are committed to removing more turf grass, adding more native plants, and introducing additional sources of water for different types of wildlife. Work continues, but so does the pleasure in watching the garden continually evolve around us.