Urban gardens play a vital role in supporting bee and pollinator populations whose welfare is threatened by habitat loss and pesticide exposure.
The welfare of bees and other pollinators encompasses both the direct experience of individual insects — which increasing evidence suggests may include pain-like states — and the population-level collapse of species that provide essential ecological services. Urban gardens represent a largely untapped opportunity for pollinator welfare support, particularly as agricultural landscapes become increasingly hostile through pesticide use and monoculture. Individual gardens may seem small, but collectively urban green spaces form habitat corridors that support pollinator movement and foraging. The welfare impact of garden choices is meaningful: plants treated with systemic pesticides harm bees directly, while diverse native plantings support the nutritional breadth and nesting opportunities that sustain healthy populations.