I’ve been watching the most recent Hosting Nature symposium from Australia, where the first presenter was a passionate and very enthusiastic woman named Emma Cutting. After Australia’s devastating bushfires in 2020, Emma founded a “street gardening” project intended to connect humans to nature and nature to nature by creating beautiful gardens on public lands and on private lands that are in the public eye.
Emma talks about creating habitats for native bees. In Australia, just as in the US, European honeybees are common pollinators and, like here, those honeybees compete with native bees. That’s a dicey topic for many people, including home gardeners. We love our pollinators, we love bees, we love honeybees and honey, yet we struggle with the reality that honeybees threaten native bees.
So how do we support native bees?
Emma envisions urban garden habitats melding into wildlife corridors that support native pollinating insects – all “ecology centered” and “community driven.”
Emma talked about another of my favorite topics – gardening to allow a natural balance between garden pests and the native predators that keep pests in check without pesticides, especially in urban spaces. Time, patience, and restraint are the ingredients to achieving this critical balance.
Emma’s passion and enthusiasm lead her to found The Heart Gardening Project, whose purpose is to “heal mankind by creating biodiversity in our cities.”
Sign up to watch Emma and other Nature Symposium presenters here.
Projects like Emma’s are why I am so excited to be leading a garden tour to Australia this October. I love to incorporate the latest and most innovative plant and garden projects, both institutional and community driven. Want to join me? There are just a few spots left on this trip – learn more and sign up before it is too late.
