Gardens can form important biodiversity hotspots. However, what exactly grows, crawls and hums in German gardens has so far hardly been investigated. For International Biodiversity Day on May 22nd, the GartenDiv project is calling on people to document the plants in their own garden or on their balcony using an app. Another project also asks for support in counting wild bees. Anyone who owns a bee nesting aid can photograph it on World Bee Day on May 20th and thereby contribute to the creation of a wild bee report.
In spring, life comes to life in the garden: plants sprout and stretch towards the sun, bees buzz between the flowers and birds build their nests. Natural gardens in particular can make an important contribution to biodiversity. But even small flower boxes on the balcony can become oases of life and provide a source of food for bees, butterflies and other pollinators.
Plant diversity in the garden
In order to scientifically record the ecological potential of gardens, the University of Leipzig, together with several partner organizations, launched the citizen science project “GartenDiv” in 2025. In the first year of the project, almost 170,000 observations were received from 2,416 gardens, allotments, school gardens and balconies. 4,458 plant species were recorded, 28 percent of which are native to Germany. The project is now entering its second round: On International Biodiversity Day on May 22nd, owners of gardens, allotments and planted balconies are invited to document the plants growing in their area – from the smallest herb to the largest tree.
Within four weeks, until the start of summer on June 21st, the aim is to create as comprehensive a picture as possible of the plant diversity in German gardens. “With the GartenDiv days we are creating the basis for making changes in species composition visible over time,” says project leader Ingmar Staude from the Institute of Biology at the University of Leipzig. “In the second year, there is a special focus on recording gardens as completely as possible. Participants should be encouraged to record all the plants in their garden, including fruit and vegetable plants, wild plants, even the inconspicuous herbs and small plants that are easily overlooked.”
If you would like to take part, you can download the free “Flora Incognita” app and select the GardenDiv project. There you answer a few questions about your own garden and receive a garden ID, which is used to transmit the observations anonymously to the researchers. The individual plants are documented with photos and automatically recognized by the app. As motivation, the project team has introduced virtual badges: Anyone who documents at least 100 different types of plants in their own garden will receive the Golden Badge.
Focus on nesting aids for wild bees
Another citizen science project is also asking for help: Wildbiene + Partner GmbH, a spin-off from ETH Zurich, is calling for people to photograph nesting aids for wild bees using the MyBeeHome app on World Bee Day on May 20th. The app evaluates how many nesting passages are used and thus provides information about successful wild bee broods. The anonymized results are to be incorporated into a wild bee report, which, after the count, is intended to draw as comprehensive a picture as possible of the situation in settlement areas in Switzerland and Germany.
“Every photographed bee hotel is an important piece of the puzzle,” says Tom Strobl from Wildbiene + Partner. “If many people take part at the same time, we get a large-scale snapshot of the different wild bee populations. What gets really exciting is when we collect this data in a standardized manner over a longer period of time: Then we can directly correlate the development of the populations with external factors such as the climate, habitat changes or the local availability of flowers.”
Both projects not only aim to gain scientific knowledge, but also to promote environmental education. In the respective apps, participants receive a wide range of information about what is growing and buzzing in their gardens. “With the MyBeeHome app you can not only contribute valuable data, but also discover for yourself who is hiding in the nesting tubes of your own bee house,” says Strobl.
Further information about participation:
GardenDiv
MyBeeHome
Sources: University of Leipzig; Wildbiene + Partner GmbH