We are very happy that thanks to this funding, we will be able to continue and upscale our project that aims to support the use of native flowering plant species in home gardens instead of non-native, potentially invasive alternatives.
NKFI MEC_N 140750 Nature at home: Supporting native plant species in urban gardens
The mission of our project is environmental education by dissemination of knowledge, the practical involvement of participants and the analysis of social attitudes. Our project aims to bring nature closer to people, as a number of new researches prove that a greener environment contributes to maintaining our physical and mental health. It is also becoming more and more fashionable to decorate homes and courtyards of institutions with plants and flowers. We want to reach people through this ’fashion’ and offer a nature-friendly alternative, that is, we can also decorate our environment with native plants. Our project offers a good challenge or a playful task for almost all people with any area of interest, regardless of age, or even a new hobby. We offer the seeds of native flowering plants from which people can choose and plant them at home. This way the participants can get one step closer to a nature-friendly home, kindergarten or school yard. Our target group is wide, anyone from the preschool age can get involved and do something for nature conservation with their own hands. We create information and display materials which will be available online and in print. We create a website with useful functions and a short film which will be available on the YouTube video sharing website. We also create a promotional and news-sharing page on the Facebook social media website. Project participants receive a printed brochure containing all the necessary information. We provide the opportunity for personal meeting and contact; we also present our project in stands at nature- and environmental conservation events and in ‘green tents’ of festivals. An attention-grabbing molino is made for these events. We present our project in environmental and biology classes in primary and secondary schools. We ask the participants to fill in an anonymous questionnaire and ask for feedback on the results of the planting and the experiences. With the help of the questionnaire and the feedback, we can improve our project in the future, as it can shed light on the social attitude and on the criteria for choosing an ‘ornamental plant’. Our project is a good opportunity to combine an increasingly popular hobby, gardening, with nature conservation. It provides an opportunity for enthusiastic participants to collaborate, build a community, share experiences and support each other. For children – one of our main target groups – it can even serve as a school task to create a small garden at home or in the school yard and to follow and observe the development of the plants.
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| Our goal is to spread the word about the use of native flowering plants instead of non-native and potentially invasive alternatives in home gardens. |
The project participants: Laura Godó (the main coordinator of the project), Orsolya Valkó (principal investigator), and we receive a lot of help from project participants: Katalin Lukács, Réka Kiss, Sándor Borza, Balázs Deák.
We will regularly give project updates here and elsewhere in the future :)
Besides this big project, three members of our research group also received funding for the communication of their results and presentation at international conferences:
Sándor Borza, MEC_R_141154: The common crane (Grus grus), an ecosystem engineer in dry grasslands
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| Soil disturbance by the common crane (the so-called 'crane-ploughing') creates distinct vegetation patches in alkaline grasslands. |
Laura Godó, MEC_R_141151: Secondary seed dispersal by the Barn Owl (Tyto alba) in open habitats
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| Via diploendozoochory, a bird of prey, such as the Barn Owl can also contribute to the dispersal of plant propagules. |
Katalin Lukács, MEC_R_141156: The role of humans in seed dispersal
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| During outdoor activities, we can unintendedly disperse a large amount of plant propagules on our clothes and footwear. |
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