Gardening for wildlife: A mixed‐methods exploration of the factors underlying engagement in wildlife‐friendly gardening

Abstract

Abstract Private domestic gardens have immense potential to contribute to urban biodiversity conservation. However, they are divided into small private plots and managed individually by garden owners. Therefore, engagement in wildlife‐friendly gardening (WFG), which entails alternative management and design choices, relies on the individual willingness of each garden owner. Using an online survey and qualitative walking interviews with garden owners, our study explores individual internal and external factors underlying engagement in WFG. We interpret and reflect on our findings in the context of gardening as a relational practice between people and nature. Our findings suggest that motivations for gardening play a central role in how internal and external factors promote or impede WFG. For example, motivations towards organic gardening and learning from nature promote WFG, whereas personal and family care and well‐being motivations seem to impede it. The perceived and actual garden area, as well as self‐reported insufficient knowledge and social norms, covary the most with engagement in WFG. Engagement in WFG relates to people's relationships with nature, as embodied in social norms of community acceptance and cohesion, and care and respect for nature and others. Future research into pro‐environmental behaviours in gardens should adopt more relational approaches that go beyond the individual self and take better account of feedback between individual actions and social relations. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Keywords

• pro‐environmental behaviour
• relational values
• socio‐ecological systems
• stakeholder engagement
• urban ecology
• wildlife‐friendly gardening