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Gardeners can play a significant role in helping to sustain native plant diversity and providing refuge for threatened species of insects and sanctuary for birds, amphibians, reptiles, and small mammals.Horticulture experts Reeser Manley and Marjorie Peronto share their own experiences in gardening for biodiversity, placing a strong emphasis on insect diversity as a bellwether of success. Insects comprise 60 percent of Earth's biodiversity, and they deserve to be recognized as the creatures that run our gardens. It is not the gardener's job to eliminate insects that munch on leaves, suck the sap from stems, bore holes in fruits, or graze on roots. This is the work of predatory insects and arachnids such as ladybug beetles, hoverfly larvae, praying mantises, certain wasps, and spiders.



About the Author

Reeser Manley

I have gardened in South Carolina, Washington state (while earning a Ph.D. in Horticultural Science), Massachusetts, and, for the last 13 years, in Maine. For the last 8 years I have written about the garden in a weekly column and online blog for the Bangor Daily News. Over the span of four decades I have taught horticulture at technical colleges and universities, including the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and the University of Maine, Orono. In 2013, I retired from teaching and now devote all of my time to working in the garden and writing about the garden.



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