I've set up this project to track what I can find on the patio of my townhouse.

I live in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It's a suburb of Metro Vancouver and a lovely place to live. I live in a townhouse development; there's a communal courtyard, and each of the townhouses has a small patch of patio as well. Mine has:

• a wooden deck directly outside our door, shaded;
• a concrete patio in front of it;
• hedges bordering the left and right sides, and in front;
• plants growing under the hedges (a rose, tulips, poppies, a mix of native and non-native flowers I've planted);
• a few plants growing in pots (and one chestnut tree);
• and the usual clutter.

I've measured mine, and it's just about 5 metres square: front door to the edge of the sidewalk, and middle of the left hedge to middle of the right hedge.

While I'm reasonably close to some wooded areas (Queen's Park, Glenbrook Ravine), this is definitely not a wild place. But I was inspired by the Australians who tracked species in their suburban back yard, and found over 1100 species. (Rogers, Andrew M., Russell Q-Y. Yong, and Matthew H. Holden. 2024. “ The House of a Thousand Species: The Untapped Potential of Comprehensive Biodiversity Censuses of Urban Properties.” Ecology 105(2): e4225. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecy.4225) I have less space than they did, but that's okay. 🙂

In this project I'm tracking what I've found in this area. I'm generally excluding stuff I find inside my house, or in the courtyard, or just nearby; this is for what I can find right here. menos ↑