Gardens & Biodiversity

Take a closer look

If you want to find out more about the biodiversity around you, our garden_biodiversity_tour.pdf is a great place to start! The tour will guide you around the College site and help you to learn more about the plants and animals that you can find there. We also have wildlife cameras setup in the gardens along with a wildlife observation hut, and we run regular wildlife walks and other events if you want to find out more from the experts. 

 

Supporting wildlife through sustainable practices

Wildlife and bird boxes are installed throughout the gardens at LMH, to monitor our wildlife populations and provide safe homes where possible. A recent addition are our hedgehog boxes, constructed by students during Green Week! Our wildflower meadow, which replaced a mown lawn quad several years ago, helps to promote biodiversity by providing a food source for many types of bees and other pollinating insects such as hoverflies, butterflies and moths that in turn plooinate food crops and provide food for birds and bats. We have also started to expand our areas of wildflower planting, in an effort to increase our native wildflowers and biodiversity. We are sowing areas specifically for wetlands, ditchens and riverside, as well as an area specially mixed to provide plants with seed heads, to provide food for birds over the winter months. 

rotivating
worm farm
camera trap
ducks

LMH has a pesticide policy in place, a commitment to using peat-free compost and rainwater harvesting facilities in the gardens. We have reduced tightly mown areas, introduced rough grass areas and kept woodland/waterside habitats as natural as possible with plenty of growth along the banks to prevent erosion and provide cover for wildfowl. We make and use our own bio-fertiliser, have swapped to a natural enzyme based product for cleaning moss and algae and use organic low-impact slug pellets. 

We are replacing petrol-powered hand tools with cordless battery powered models to improve both the operator's experience and that of other garden users as this means less fumes and less noise.

 

To find out more about any of these projects and to get involved, contact gardener@lmh.ox.ac.uk.