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Ted Audio Collective. It's

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Ted Talks Daily. I'm your host, Elise Hugh,

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and it's such a delight to be in

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springtime when the days are getting longer and

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the flowers are in full bloom. It

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has me thinking a lot about gardens. And

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today, we have a different and

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environmentally much better way to build

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beautiful gardens. Today's speaker

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has done it in New York

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City, among other places, and in

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her 2023 talk from Ted Women,

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horticulturalist Rebecca McMacken asks us all

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to get our hands dirty to

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benefit biodiversity after a sponsor message.

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So, full disclosure, I

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am the nerdiest gardener you are ever going to

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meet. Technically,

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I'm an ecological horticulturalist, which is a

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fancy way of saying that I design

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and manage gardens that are extravagantly beautiful,

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while also providing habitat

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for plant populations, wildlife

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communities, and even soil

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organisms. And you might

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wonder, isn't that what all gardeners do?

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Unfortunately, no. The

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vast majority of gardens are

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ecological deserts, and in

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fact, an incredible amount of environmental

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damage has been done in the

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name of making pretty gardens. In

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the US alone, we dump over 100

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million pounds of insecticides, herbicides,

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and synthetic fertilizers on our lawns and

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gardens every year. There

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just isn't a garden pretty enough to be worth

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all of that, and the

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reality is that it's completely unnecessary.

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Gardens and landscapes that are absolutely

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gorgeous can also help the world

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around us. They can

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provide food, water, and shelter to wildlife.

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Gardens can and have brought back plants and

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animals from the brink of extinction. There

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is a movement happening all over the

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globe. gardeners, garden

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designers, landscape architects, even

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entire cities are finding

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ways to beautify our environment while

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making space for the animals we share this

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land with. I've

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seen biodiversity return to one of

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the toughest places to live on

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the entire planet, the

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middle of New York City, where

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I cared for, designed, and helped

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build public parks and gardens. At

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Brooklyn Bridge Park, where I was director of horticulture,

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we took these massive

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derelict shipping piers out over the water

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between Brooklyn and Manhattan and turned

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them into an 85-acre

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post-industrial public park. It

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was designed by MVVA and built out

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over a decade. It's

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hard to imagine now that this

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lush landscape was built on

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parched concrete. This

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is about as appealing to wildlife as

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a parking lot. And

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yet, just a few years after construction,

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we welcomed migratory birds, rare

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insects, and clouds

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of butterflies, all among

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millions and millions of park visitors.

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When people go to Brooklyn Bridge Park, they're usually

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there to play basketball or have a picnic.

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They have no idea that they're walking through

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a monarch habitat or a firefly sanctuary. It

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just reads as a beautiful park with lots

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of butterflies and magical evenings. And

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if we can do that in the

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middle of New York City, amidst all

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that traffic and concrete, you

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can do it anywhere. Indeed,

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we must incorporate habitat

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everywhere, immediately, especially in

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our cities. We

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are facing a biodiversity crisis of

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catastrophic disease. We're

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changing the planet so quickly that plants and

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animals cannot keep up. You

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may have heard of the insect apocalypse, and

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unfortunately it is just as terrifying as

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it sounds. We

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have lost nearly half

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of insects on planet Earth just

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since I was a little kid. Now

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you might not like bugs, but

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they are still keeping you alive. One

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in every three bites of food that you

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eat is the direct result of

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insect pollination. And

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this isn't just a problem for humanity.

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Where we have the data, we've lost

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a quarter of our birds. In

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North America it's 29%. Most

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of these birds feed their babies

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exclusively on insects. So

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it's not just climate change that we need to solve right now.

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There is some existential multitasking

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required of us. Thank

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goodness that there are solutions,

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and many of them literally

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involve planting flowers. So

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let's talk about gardening for biodiversity. Because

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while you might not be a gardener, I

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am still going to ask you to get your hands

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dirty. All it takes

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is a pot on your stoop to have

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a positive effect. The

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first thing we should all be doing

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are planting plants that are from the

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places we're gardening. We call

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them native plants, and they're important because they evolved

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alongside of the wildlife there. Plants

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and animals often form relationships and even

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dependencies on each other. For

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example, the

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eastern red Columbine is

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arguably the most cheerful of our

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spring wild flowers. But

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of course, they're not blooming for

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us. Their

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red flower heralds the return

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of the ruby-throated hummingbird, the

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east coast's only hummingbird. After

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these tiny birds upon thousands of miles

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on their migration from Central America to

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the Northeast, they rely on the sugary

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nectar of the columbine to refuel and

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have reason to believe that the spiral

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be waiting for them when they do.

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The columbine stores their nectar. At the

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end of longspurs were only the long

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tons of the hummingbird to reach it.

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As the bird drinks the nectar, the pollen

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is the flower. Both. Organisms

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are benefiting hair and in fact, The.

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Ruby throated humming bird is the eastern

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Read. Columbines pollinate a partner. The

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bird and the flower could not be more

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charming, but it's the dynamics between the two

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where. The real magic resides. Them

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instead. Birds.

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Have an extra photo receptor that allows them

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to see red incredibly well. Flowers.

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Have taken advantage of this and

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use the color red to communicate.

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As the humming birds fly over

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on their journey, a wave of

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red flowers bloom to greet them.

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This beautiful dance of symbiosis is

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happening all around us among plants

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and animals that have of all

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together for thousands if not millions

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of years. In

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return for planting native plants, we get

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his front row seats to the wonders.

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Of the natural world. It's

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hard work but it's the best time because at

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the end of our efforts not only did we

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get biodiversity. But. We get better fall. When

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butterflies does it flowers, they're there for

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a quick drink of nectar. But.

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If we want to support their full life cycle,

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we need to provide them with food when they

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are. Very hungry caterpillar.

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Caterpillar's eat leaves. But.

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The can't see it anyways. they need

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believe they have evolved. To digest.

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Monarchs. And milkweed are the most famous

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duel that every butterfly in law has a

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plant or even a few that they lay

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their. Eggs on. these are

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their host plan At

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Brooklyn Bridge Park a while ago,

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I saw American lady butterflies visiting

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our flowers. So

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I looked at their host plants and found

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that their favorite was a tiny white flower

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called pearly everlasting. So

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I ordered a few hoping that the butterflies

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would eventually find them. However,

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when I opened the box, it

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was like butterflies just materialized out

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of thin air and went straight

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for the pearly everlasting. We

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had to brush the butterflies off the plants just to get

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them in the ground. Now

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I know that it might be a

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shock for some of you to hear that people like

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me want insects eating our garden plants, but

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even bugs we refer to as pests

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can be important for biodiversity. Long

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ago at Brooklyn Bridge Park, our Catalpa

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trees got covered in aphids. They're

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a common garden pest that suck the

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sugary liquid out of leaves. People

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encouraged me to spray them with pesticides, but I didn't.

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And the following year, we found

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the two spotted lady beetle on

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our Catalpas. This

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was the first sighting of this ladybug

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in New York City in 30 years.

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And the thing about them is that they

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eat those tiny aphids that are on our

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Catalpas. So if we had sprayed the trees,

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we would have harmed the ladybugs as well.

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Gardening is a long game. With

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patience, we can return balance to

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these systems. When

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we allow pests to live in our gardens,

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predators like ladybugs will soon move in. By

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building up biodiversity, pests are

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kept at bay. Most

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gardeners try to maintain these clean, sterile

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environments that are the exact opposite of

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what wildlife wants. The

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more we can stop being tidy, the

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more wildness we can bring into our

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gardens and landscapes, the better habitat

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we provide. Who

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ever possible, we should stop mowing.

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Why not get rid of your lawn? Or

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shrink it drastically. Lawns

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should be area rugs, not wall-to-wall

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carpets. Paves

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that fall to the ground should be left there.

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They're literally called leaves. We should leave

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them. Bumblebees

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nest in those leaves. Birds

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will forage in them. And butterflies overwinter

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in them as well. Seed

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heads can be sculptural while feeding the birds.

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And old flower stems can be tucked away

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to allow tiny bees to nest in them.

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All of these practices create new

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looks for our gardens. The part

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of this work is changing

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our ideas of beauty. Traditional

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gardens were often about displaying

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control over nature. But

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we no longer wear powdered wigs and hoop skirts.

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We don't need to be authoritarian in our

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garden design. And

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it's not all or nothing. There's almost always

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space on our land where we can go

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a little wild. The

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rose mallow is this tropical-looking

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hibiscus that grows throughout eastern

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North America. The stems

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are often cut down by gardeners in spring. But

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we left them up one year because we found

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that there were a bunch of beneficial insects that

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used those stems. And

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what we ended up with, I

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find absolutely stunning.

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It might not be a look for every garden, but

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certainly we can find space for it.

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And a few weeks later, we found a

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song sparrow nest nestled in

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between those uncut stems. And

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soon, we had baby song sparrows

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hopping around outside of the garden. There's

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a direct link between that garden

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practice and an actual

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baby bird. In

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these scary times, it

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can be so hard to know what to do and how to

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help, but it feels great

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to cultivate life with your own two

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hands. And there's an abundance of research

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now to show how beneficial gardening is

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for our health and even our happiness.

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Because we all deserve to live in

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a healthy and thriving ecosystem, but

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it feels even better when we're part of those

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systems, supporting the plants

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and pollinators around us the way that they

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support us. Like

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many of you, I am at times

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immobilized with climate grief, thinking about the world

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that we're leaving for our children. But

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gardening honestly brings me so much hope

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that we can solve some very big,

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very serious problems, that we

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have the solutions already, and

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many of them simply involve

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planting flowers. Thank

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you so much. Thank you.