How Tracing Food Chains in a Garden Can Lead to Surprising Lessons

Every garden, no matter how large or small, has at least some features of a functioning ecological system. By tracing the food chains in a garden, we can learn to appreciate the function of the natural world around us and also gain a deeper appreciation of our place within the system as a whole.

When we take a closer look at the food chains in a garden, we can begin to truly understand how every creature—not just us—shapes its environment. Or how, as we put it in permaculture circles, "everything gardens."

Tracing the food chains in a garden can also help us to delve a little deeper into the complex mechanisms that all play a role in helping our gardens grow. We can also gain a better understanding of the complex interactions and interdependences that we will find in any garden.

Taking a look at food chains in your own garden can sometimes yield some surprising observations, and it can really make you think—as it did me when I started out to map some of the food chains in my own garden.

Working Out What Eats What

It is not always easy to work out what eats what in a garden. Often, interactions take place out of our sight, and of course, there is plenty of microscopic dining going on that we cannot see with the naked eye.

But we can get a lot closer to working out what eats what by, first of all, ascertaining which species we have in our gardens. Many we will be able to see and observe. And we can read more about the species we see to find out what they might be consuming.

Predators and Prey

I began by looking at which larger predatory creatures I have in my garden. We have the occasional fox, for example. And birds of prey like buzzards, sparrowhawks, barn owls, and tawny owls.

Some predators are at the tops of their prospective food chains, while others, of course, can be both predators and prey. Moles, for example, are creatures that both prey and are preyed upon. They eat earthworms and other subsoil creatures and are sometimes eaten by foxes and birds of prey.

With most creatures in the garden, including common pests, the key to successfully living with them and preventing population explosions lies in understanding what they eat and what eats them—their place within garden food chains.

We need to understand that there will never be just one linear food chain in operation. Different creatures will compete over various forms of prey. Just think of the number of different things that will eat a single insect species. Looking at what eats aphids, for example, will show you just how much complexity you can be dealing with in even the smallest of spaces.

Ecosystem Niches

When we use the term "niche" in ecology, we are using it to describe how an organism or population responds to the distribution of resources and competitors—for example, by growing when resources are abundant and when predators, parasites, and pathogens are scarce. And also how it, in turn, alters those same factors—for example, limiting access to resources by other organisms, acting as a food source for predators and a consumer of prey.

Working out the niches occupied by various wildlife in our gardens can help us to recognize how we might introduce new features to the space to benefit them and which niches in a garden may yet be filled.

A Deeper Understanding

Looking at who is eating what, when, and where in our gardens can reveal a lot about how our gardens work ecologically speaking. This can help us to not only understand our gardens better but also get them to function better and find our own place as a gardener within the systems around us.

For example, looking at the food chains and ecosystem niches in my own garden has allowed me to recognize that I should let voles (to give one example) inhabit the space.

While these and many other creatures are sometimes considered pests, they are extremely beneficial to attract the creatures that not only eat them but also help to keep down other pest populations and keep the ecosystem in balance.

Seeing connections with an open mind can help a gardener understand that nothing in nature works on its own, and we can get better results if we let nature do some of the gardening as well.