Building habitat: A place for pollinators and people

Birds, bees, and various types of insects within broader ecosystems play an essential role in pollinating crops that provide our food. Food security research shows that increasing numbers and types of bees and insects, which are visiting plants, have a direct impact on crop yields, making their role in biodiversity vitally important (Baldock et al., 2016; Baldock, 2020). Yet scientists observe that pollinator numbers and varieties are declining across Australia. In addition, research is providing evidence to suggest that human interactions with nature through access to community gardens are essential for human health and wellbeing (Guitart et al., 2012; Frumkin et al., 2017). A community garden can be a liminal space in a work environment to build community (Shortt, 2015) and a way of connecting to nature. In a social and sustainability intervention, the aim was to address both the issue of dwindling biodiversity and stakeholders’ wellbeing by building a ‘pollinator and community garden’.