AboutLong Island Gardener Expertise There is NO EXCUSE today for a gardener to use chemicals. Perfect Lawns? Pristine Roses? Immaculate Flowers all Summer long? If you live in the Northeast/Atlantic Coast, I'll guide you down the non-toxic road to Organica - and you will not believe how easy it can be. Yes, it can be complicated, but backing off from Ortho and Scotts is not as hard as you think. Your neighbors won't believe their eyes. I have intelligent answers on soil care, bug killing, weed control and fungus-freedom!
Experience I have college credits in horticulture and botany, and 30 years of gardening for personal pleasure. Plus I am a volunteer docent at the local botanical gardens. But a person's real gardening skills are learned from trial and error. I am strict about not using chemicals in the garden. Always have been. Always will be.
Question using simple wording can you please explain what bio diversity is and how it can be applied to gardening
Answer BIODIVERSITY is the range of living things in an environment, from the smallest microscopic being to the largest mammal. The richest biodiversity is found in tropical climates; there's very little biodiversity near the Poles. Ecologists consider Biodiversity a sign of a healthy natural ecosystem.
I'm not sure what you're looking for, but I am inclined to think that gardening would negatively impact the biodiversity of the land around a home. Plants are selected for personal taste, not for their contributions to the ecosystem outside your window. You like the fragrance. Or the color of the leaves. Or the long blooming season.
And yet, these plants are disturbing native plants you don't even know you had. Some develop into Noxious Weeds, escape, and compete with native plants. The highly controlled environment of the garden simply cannot support biodiversity. The visiting native species that appears out of the blue is quickly branded a Weed and removed.
Chemicals used in the garden also interfere with biodiversity. The Salts in commercial Fertilizers are toxic to many species of worms, Nematodes, etc. Ditto, pesticides. Destroying these fauna and flora is bad for biodiversity. But gardeners are a progressive bunch as a rule. Don't be surprised if you start reading accounts of gardeners who let their landscape grow all on its own, in the interests of biodiversity and all it embraces.
