It is easy to feel hopeless about the future of British wildlife. The 2023 State of Nature report found that one in six species are at risk of extinction, with the groups most under threat including plants, birds, amphibians and reptiles, fungi and land mammals. But many of us can do something simple to help: gardening.
“There are 23m gardens in Britain, so we can make a real difference,” says Rob Stoneman from the Wildlife Trusts. Gardens cover a bigger area than all the UK’s nature reserves combined, he says. “If you haven’t got a garden, perhaps you could have a window box, or get involved in a community garden, or apply for an allotment.”
Adrian Thomas from the RSPB says: “Twenty years ago, there was a sense that gardens contained bog-standard, unimportant wildlife. Research has now shown that gardens are some of our richest habitats. Villages often have more birdlife than the surrounding countryside.” He cites Jennifer Owen, who had a modest-sized suburban garden in Leicester. Over a 30-year period from 1971, she recorded 2,673 species of wildlife in her garden, including seven new to Britain and four new to science.