Boosting biodiversity potential in gardens of healthcare institutions: Turning lawns into flowering meadows

Gardens of healthcare institutions can have a positive impact on the health and wellbeing of care providers and recipients, and at the same time contribute to biodiversity conservation. We surveyed the current ecological value of these gardens and their potential for biodiversity across 878 healthcare institutions in northern Belgium in 2020. The majority of these healthcare institutions in our survey were interested in the effects of biodiversity on their care providers and recipients, and 70 % of the healthcare institutions indicated they were willing to enhance the biodiversity of their garden. Only one in three healthcare institutions consciously used their garden as part of therapy. Most of the respondent institutions (96 %) had one or more green elements on their premises. Trees (89 %) and short-cut lawns (87 %) were most common, while flower meadows appeared to be relatively scarce (17 %). We looked at each garden’s potential to provide a suitable environment for target species or target groups to fulfill their lifecycle, which we explored for three examples: butterflies, aboveground nesting bees and the alpine newt (Ichthyosaura alpestris). Almost half of the gardens (45 %) had the potential to provide a suitable environment for butterflies, approximately one-third of the gardens (31 %) for the aboveground nesting bees and less than one tenth (9 %) for the alpine newt. The commonness of short-cut lawns, a green element characterized by high management costs and low biodiversity value, shows that there is room for green elements with a higher ecological value within the gardens. We identified flower meadows as a green element with a high potential of increasing the garden biodiversity. Turning short-cut lawns into species-rich flower meadows may be an answer to the biodiversity interest of the healthcare institutions.