The UK wants gardeners to stop thinking of slugs and snails as pests and to embrace garden biodiversity. Is it worth considering in Australia?
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Articles on Gardening
Displaying 1 - 20 of 71 articles
Pollen brings seasonal misery to millions of Americans, but it serves a critical purpose: fertilizing many kinds of plants, including food crops.
As lockdowns went into effect in the spring of 2020, many people took up gardening as a coping mechanism. But will a hobby born out of a crisis recede as life returns to normal?
Variegated plants can be more expensive than their all-green counterparts. But there are ways to protect your investment.
Up to 85% of the nectar available to pollinating insects in a city comes from gardens. What we plant – whether in an allotment or a window box – can make a huge difference.
These fascinating spiders only live for about a year and have particularly interesting family arrangements.
Taking lessons from the past could help enrich our diets for little cost
Plants support human health not only in terms of providing food, oxygen and shade. Our relationships with plants facilitate political decisions and actions that support health in the city.
The pandemic has taken a toll on people’s mental and physical health – but spending time in your garden can counteract this.
When community gardens are socially inclusive, everyone benefits. The knowledge, skills and experimentation of migrant and refugee gardeners makes them more resilient and biodiverse.
Gardening provides a helpful metaphor to help us understand how individual and platform approaches to misinformation need to be accompanied by policy and cultural reforms.
What can gardeners use that isn’t so bad for the climate?
Planting a garden for winter-active insects is a wonderful way to support local biodiversity. Your garden will thrive with the free pollination and pest control services the insects provide.
Seedkeeping can create a sense of home, reconnect communities with ancestral crops and preserve biodiversity and culturally significant crops for future generations.
With fewer people commuting, home water use changed radically overnight in March 2020.
Looking for a new gardening challenge? Turning your yard into an insect-friendly oasis could mean less work and more nature to enjoy.
Environmentalism is, for the most part, the domain of the white middle class. We must recognise the contributions migrants already make, and how their power can be further harnessed.
Research shows hobbies may lower levels of depression.
While you may have seen a lot of bees around lately, there’s no reason to be afraid. Some don’t sting, and others might actually be flies.
Even if you don’t have a garden, there are still ways you can benefit and connect with the nature on your doorstep.
Top contributors
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Associate professor, University of Sydney
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Doctor of Botany, The University of Melbourne
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Researcher, Macquarie University
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Postdoctoral Researcher in Mycology, West Virginia University
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Lecturer in Ecology, University of New England
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Associate Professor, Centre for Creative and Cultural Research, Faculty of Arts and Design, University of Canberra
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Senior Lecturer in Ecology, Northumbria University, Newcastle
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Professor of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, Australian National University
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Foundation Professor of Horticulture and Viticulture, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science, Western Sydney University
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Cameron Webb is a Friend of The Conversation.
Clinical Associate Professor and Principal Hospital Scientist, University of Sydney
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Senior Research Fellow, Western Sydney University
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Adjunct Fellow, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, Macquarie University
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Senior Research Fellow in Urbanism, University of Sydney
