Growing your own garden can be very satisfying, whether your goal is to beautify your home with flowers or to grow fresh vegetables for your family.  Most gardeners have their own favorite plants, and may tend to favor these plants when planning and planting their garden.  While there is nothing wrong with liking one type of plant more than any other plant, it is not necessarily a good idea to grow that plant exclusively.

Although it will be well manicured and maintained your garden should mirror nature, and that means have a wide variety of plant species.  This concept is known as biodiversity.  Biodiversity is important because each plant brings different characteristics to your garden.  Each plant species is home to several different types of bugs, some of which are harmful and some beneficial.

The insects that are harmful to one plant may be beneficial to another.  Therefore, if you have several species of plants in your garden you may reduce the chances of any one species becoming infested with bugs.  However, if you have too few species of plants, then you may find it necessary to use chemical products to control pests.  Maintaining a diverse garden is one of the best ways to avoid the potentially harmful effects of these chemicals: by doing so you let nature take care of things itself.

How do you know if your garden is diverse?  The answer is simply to count the number of species.  Your garden should have a few species of grasses, as well as several species of broadleaf plants.  By increasing the number of different species present in your garden, you will increase the chances that your garden will be healthy and thriving.