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You step out of the back door into the garden. There may be a few birds flitting around, perhaps butterflies or bumblebees on the wing. But often the garden can seem very still. The plants are growing quietly – to do so they sense and respond to the world around them. However, although the surface of the garden is typically calm and still, if you look beyond the superficial inactivity there is a web of wildlife to explore, to understand and then to encourage more biodiversity.
The Science of Garden Biodiversity: The Living Garden shows how data and the science can help to dispel myths, such as that wildlife gardens are great for wildlife (and other gardens aren't), that a garden fit for wildlife must be 'wild' and that you must grow native plants. It also provides an understanding of how diverse life can be in gardens and how gardens function ecologically. And along the way there are scientific 'signposts' to better wildlife gardening. Julian Doberski explains the role of 'small things' – microrganisms and invertebrates – that are fundamental to garden diversity but are often overlooked when we are thinking about encouraging biodiversity.
Learning more about the ecology of a garden helps us understand and appreciate what makes a garden work and how this may lead to a more thoughtful and constructive approach to gardening and garden design, following the science to make gardens work for biodiversity.
Julian Doberski has degrees in Zoology (BSc Southampton), Forestry (MSc Oxford) and a PhD in biological control of insects using fungi (Cambridge). He has thirty years of teaching experience at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge (and its predecessor institutions) where he was a Principal Lecturer in Ecology. He has jointly published a resource pack for A-level ecology students and a range of scientific research and science in education papers. His first book, The Science of Compost, was published by Pimpernel Press Ltd in 2022. He lives in Cambridgeshire.
