Gardening for biodiversity B Y RI CH A R D C O WL IN G
As of writing this article, I am nurturing about 185 species of indigenous plants in my garden at Cape St Francis, a stone’s throw from the beach front. I say “about” because, in the few hundred square meters of erf that is available for horticulture, species come and go. Such a concentration of species in such a small area is unlikely to be found in the wild, even in our speciesrich fynbos vegetation. It is difficult to sustain 44
populations of all of these species in such a small area.
T HE GARDENER M U ST DEAL C O N S TANTLY W I TH A F U NDAM ENTAL P R IN C I PLE O F E C OLOGY, N A M ELY PLANT
