Maximize Free Ecosystem Services in Your Garden

Carpenter bees are one of our local pollinators

By adopting certain practices you can maximize numerous free “services” to create a healthy and thriving garden, courtesy of Mother Nature. All you have to do is to make a safe home for her critters. A healthy garden doesn’t need extensive and expensive inputs such as pesticides, herbicides or even large amounts of fertilizers. In fact, you have to avoid using these toxic products.

I’m referring to ecosystem services, and what I mean is this: 

If your garden is a healthy ecosystem it is easier and less expensive to maintain, and it's healthier for you and the environment.

What are Ecosystem Services?

In a nutshell they are things that nature provides when the right conditions exist. The ecosystem services most important for home gardeners include: pollination, pest control, fertility through decomposition of organic matter, healthy soil leading to healthy plants, ambient climate control, food production, and even remediation (breakdown) of harmful contaminants.

Silver thyme in flower is much loved by bees

Here’s more on these points:

Pollination

Some edibles depend entirely on pollination to produce any crop at all, while others produce a better crop when pollinated. For example, include flowering plants that attract pollinators when you plant your vegetable garden and they will pollinate your crops for an optimal harvest. This is especially important for squashes and cucumbers which rely on pollination. Many fruit and nut trees require pollination, including certain varieties of apples, most plums, pluots, pears, cherries (except sour cherry) and nuts. To read more about attracting pollinators go to this Xerces Society page.

Pest Control

Birds, wasps, and other predatory insects will keep the “bad” bugs under control. They will also kill a certain amount of ”good bugs”, but a balance will eventually be established.  Efficient predators such as wasps prey on many insects and their larvae that feed on plants. It's critical that you don't use any toxic chemicals if you want to establish beneficial insects in your garden. Birds forage on the ground for insects and they also pick them off of foliage. Set out bird baths with water to attract them, and make sure they have shrubs and trees for their nests. To learn more about biological pest control go to this UC Davis page.

Crimson clover is another bee magnet

Decomposition and Healthy Soil

A healthy garden ecosystem is supported by healthy soil. A key process at work in the soil food web is the decomposition and recycling of organic matter. We typically remove valuable sources of organic matter when we rake up leaves, grass clippings, and other trimmings from our garden. We can return these to the soil in the form of compost, use a chipper to make mulch, or use wood chips as mulch. Mulch added around your plants to cover any bare soil, will be a source of organic material that will breakdown over time while it helps retain moisture. Composting your yard and kitchen waste is one of the most valuable practices you can do at home. There are many methods and you can find one that suits your lifestyle.

Soil is alive and teeming with microorganisms as well as larger creatures such as nematodes and earthworms, and many others. If you take time to build up your soil with good compost and provide proper amounts of moisture, your plants will thrive and be better able to access nutrients, resist diseases and insect damage. Read more about the soil food web.

A lovely flowering dogwood tree

Climate Control

Trees are essential for providing many much needed ecosystem services in suburban and urban areas. Not only do they shade our homes and offices but they also transpire water vapor, which cools the local environment around them. This added moisture creates favorable conditions for both plants and animals. Trees mitigate the "heat island" effect caused by overdeveloped areas that are low on vegetation. In dry climates like California, trees are an essential natural resource. And of course they also provide important habitat and food for birds, insects, and mammals. It’s true that when you cut down a tree you are destroying an entire ecosystem.  

Organically grown home-garden harvest- it's dinner time!

Food Production

Our food producing plants are fascinating - watching luscious tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce grow and transform into delicious food is magical. You can maximize your pleasure and quality of life by growing an endless variety of herbs, fruits, and vegetables to enjoy with your family, neighbors, and friends. Why not use your precious resources of land and water to grow at least some amount of food?
But besides food, edible plants contribute to a healthy garden ecosystem. For example, by letting herbs flower they attract scores of beneficial insects in addition to providing fresh herbs for your meal. Try oregano, thyme, rosemary, mint, basil, and parsley for starters.

Flowering parsley attracts beneficial insects

Bioremediation of Soil Contaminants

Through the process of decomposition some soil contaminants are eventually broken down. This process is a feature that can be leveraged through the use of compost (through the microorganisms). It has been used in clean ups for PCB, diesel fuel, and other petroleum type contaminated soils, to name a few. However, if you suspect that your soil is contaminated, you need to have it tested. I'm not suggesting that you should attempt to clean up serious or dangerous contamination on your own. I mention it here to show the power of natural processes.
To read more go here.

In my next post: Tips and strategies for creating a garden ecosystem.

Photo credits: Patricia Larenas, Urban Artichoke

Your Edible Garden as Wildlife Habitat

-->

To have a wildlife friendly garden, you don’t necessarily have to plant only native plants. And I’m not talking about the big critters, such as deer and raccoons, but the small and even tiny wildlife that really count in the garden ecosystem: bees, butterflies, wasps, and other beneficial insects, plus soil organisms, birds, lizards, and frogs. These are the “boots on the ground” for a healthy organic, pesticide and herbicide free garden.

Here are some guidelines to help make your garden a thriving ecosystem where you can harvest your veggies too.

Fremontia and pyracantha attract bees and birds, and provide habitat for nesting

Plan for Diversity: Use Edibles, Natives, and Ornamentals

In her excellent book, The Habitat Garden Book, Wildlife Landscaping for the San Francisco Bay Region, author Nancy Bauer recommends using a simple and flexible planting formula of one third each native plants, edibles, and ornamental plants. With a little research you can identify attractive flowering and fruiting plants native to your area that do well in suburban and urban landscapes, and ornamental plants that encourage pollinators and other beneficials.

In our garden (above) a Fremontia or California Flannel Bush, is a favorite with bumble bees, and the Pyracantha behind it attracts honey bees with profuse white flowers.  Birds love it for the dense cover and berries it provides in the winter.

Leveraging Your Edibles

After I learned that many culinary herbs are well loved by different types of bees, I let my herbs go to flower, including parsley, (top photo above) which attracts insect predators. You can use this to your advantage in the garden. If you prefer to harvest herbs before they flower (for better flavor) plant enough so that you can let some go to bloom. Some of the favorite flowering herbs for bees are oregano, thyme, sweet marjoram, parsley and basil.

Many edible flowers are also great for companion planting among your vegetables (below).

Edible flowers: calendula, nasturtium, chives, and borage

-->

Create Habitat

Wildlife needs food, water, and shelter. Shrubs and trees attract birds that will control the insect population, and if you provide fresh water in birdbaths, they’ll move in almost instantly. We found that removing our lawns and replacing them with mulched areas was a huge bird magnet. They love to scratch around for bugs in the mulch, and take dust baths in the bare patches of soil. Lizards appreciate having ground cover in a rock garden or a small brush pile, and they'll eat their share of insects. Butterflies like very shallow water (a saucer with stones) or a mud puddle to drink from.

As Bauer points out, an overly tidy garden has less wildlife habitat. Leave some leaves on the ground for a natural mulch that decomposes and enriches the soil and gives small creatures a home.

Take Time to Plan

You don't have to get it done all at once, but you can gradually transform your garden into your very own wildlife sanctuary and enjoy watching nature in action, up close and personal.

This post was also published on Eat Drink Better

Photos: Patricia Larenas