The stepping stone gardens project was started in Leimbach. Following the example of the Nature in Settlement Area association in Riesbach, the environmental protection organization WWF Zurich promotes biodiversity in the settlement area. Advice on increasing biodiversity takes place both for private gardens and for the surroundings of larger properties.
Many of our native animals and plants thrive in suitable gardens. Such places offer habitats for very different creatures – the largest of which is certainly humans. But others can also benefit from well-designed areas: butterflies, birds like the Stiglitz or, with a bit of luck, hedgehogs can find their niche here.
Even simple measures help
It is best if such gardens are part of a network. The individual gardens function like stepping stones. The term “stepping stone gardens” shows that animals move from garden to garden, just as we humans cross a stream with stepping stones. This leads to a network of many areas and enables the animals to migrate and thus a sufficiently large habitat to be preserved in the long term. Stepping rock gardens are structurally rich and contain many different valuable plant species. They offer breeding and wintering places for various animals as well as a diverse range of food and safe hiding places. Stepping rock gardens are characterized by a mostly nature-friendly design, use and care.
Biodiversity can often be promoted with even the simplest measures. For example, you can simply use bricks to halve the height of stairs and thus provide a network of habitats for hedgehogs, as the stairs are no longer an obstacle for these small mammals. Many species that are threatened in Switzerland still occur in settlement areas. But even there they are under pressure and are in danger of extinction. Stepping rock gardens can counteract this by connecting different habitats or even serving as a habitat themselves.
Even small garden areas designed to meet the needs of hedgehogs or wild bees quickly improve their habitat. It is important for hedgehogs not to have to walk on the street to get to the nearest food source. And for wild bees it is crucial that, in addition to a suitable nesting place, they also find plenty of food nearby. Suitable pollen plants can be grown in many places, it’s definitely worth it!
What the project should achieve
The aim of the advice is to motivate garden owners to make their gardens completely or partially nature-friendly. If you would like to have brimstone butterflies in your garden, plant buckthorn and buckthorn, the food plants for the caterpillars of this beautiful butterfly. And a wild hedge and, if necessary, a nesting aid will help to increase bird song on the terrace.
One of the most important goals from an ecological perspective is to increase the abundance of flowers through native wild perennials and trees. It also makes sense to create sand lenses for wild bees, improve meadows or create passages and sleeping places for hedgehogs.
The Trittsteingarten project is also being implemented in the WWF sections Aargau, Schaffhausen and Schwyz.
2024-03-29 11:00:32
#Promote #biodiversity #Leimbach
