For most of the 30 years I have practiced landscape architecture, the field as a whole has curiously not been particularly involved with ecology and environmental science. The idea of the landscape design professional as environmental advocate has been there for a long time, yes, but the actual application of information from ecological science into mainstream design practice, no.

In the last decade or so, there’s been a noticeable shift on that front. I personally haven’t seen much of a change in local garden and landscape design habits, but the larger LA (land. arch.) community is now much more actively organized around its role in helping to achieve environmentally functional design. One of the ways they’ve done this is by recognizing built projects that have applied site ecology studies into their design programs.

Much of the attention has gone to large-scale public oriented projects, urban ecology, big private ranches/estates, etc., but it seems that too could be changing as ecologists bring us the message that the average private garden/landscape is critically important to wildlife. Even as poorly as we’ve been doing garden/landscape design and management from an ecological perspective, hundreds of current studies confirm that private green space collectively supports many species that map multiple resource points as patchwork habitat. It all matters to them.

How much does it matter? It surprised me to learn that boosting the habitat and resource conservation value of private gardens and landscape has become a top priority because 1) they have the combined potential to support more species than preserves, reserves, and park lands totaled, and 2) it’s immediately ‘doable’.

“Historically, wildlife conservation focused on protecting large wilderness areas. Yet parklands make up a mere 3 to 4 percent of the continental United States. By comparison, yards make up roughly 17 percent. And when we zoom into cities, yards make up about 50 percent of our total green space,” she adds. “That’s a significant amount of land with potential to provide quality wildlife habitat.” Susannah Lerman, https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2020/April-May/Conservation/NSF-Certified-Yards

Douglas Tallamy, a conservation entomologist at University of Delaware, has stated that “If we planted native on 50% of this private land we would restore biodiversity…and we can do it starting NOW.”. Dr. Tallamy emphasizes that it all matters - all the way down to plant choices made in the patio container garden. The title of one of his podcasts, “The Little Things Matter The Most”, refers foremost to native plants and bugs (our food web foundation) but also to the power of collective environmental inputs made by individuals wherever they are.

What scientific studies have revealed about material and spatial patterns that contribute the most to garden and landscape ecological productivity within their respective eco-regions is spread across very specific research topics, but the summary target principles for Dr. Tallamy are as follows:

Four Universal Landscape Ecological Goals:

1. They must support a diverse community of pollinators throughout the growing season.

2. They must provide energy for the local food web.

3. They must manage the watershed in which they lie.

4. They must remove carbon from the atmosphere where it is wreaking havoc on the earth’s climate.

https://homegrownnationalpark.org/4-universal-landscape-goals/

In subsequent articles, I would like to explore what each of the four goals mean, and specific recommendations for building toward them. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to organize some good info. relevant to high desert gardens. There’s much more to conservation than drought tolerant plants.