Every garden, no matter how large or small, has at least some features of a functioning ecological system. By tracing the food chains in a garden, we can learn to appreciate the function of the natural world around us and also gain a deeper appreciation of our place within the system as a whole.
When we take a closer look at the food chains in a garden, we can begin to truly understand how every creature—not just us—shapes its environment. Or how, as we put it in permaculture circles, «everything gardens.»
Tracing the food chains in a garden can also help us to delve a little deeper into the complex mechanisms that all play a role in helping our gardens grow. We can also gain a better understanding of the complex interactions and interdependences that we will find in any garden.
Taking a look at food chains in your own garden can sometimes yield some surprising observations, and it can really make you think—as it did me when I started out to map some of the food chains in my own garden.
It is not always easy to work out what eats what in a garden. Often, interactions take place out of our sight, and of course, there is plenty of microscopic dining going on that we cannot see with the naked eye.
But we can get a lot closer to working out what eats what by, first of all, ascertaining which species we have in our gardens. Many we will be able to see and observe. And we can read more about the species we see to find out what they might be consuming.
I began by looking at which larger predatory creatures I have in my garden. We have the occasional fox, for example. And birds of prey like buzzards, sparrowhawks, barn owls, and tawny owls.
Some predators are at the tops of their prospective food chains, while others, of
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