The city of Tallinn prepared a catalogue of bio-rich landscaping so that you can plant plants that maintain biodiversity in your home environment.

In the catalogue located at haljastus.tallinn.ee, you can find nearly 900 plants that are suitable for both green areas and gardens. In addition to the description, you can learn about each plant how valuable it is to pollinators and who it attracts. “The catalogue is helpful for the gardener, garden designer and landscape architect to make a more informed choice of plants in the garden, green area or street. In this way, more functional plant species reach our garden and urban space, which, in addition to being pleasing to the eye, also have an important value for pollinating insects, birds and other animal species,” said Liivi Mäekalla, landscape architect of the Tallinn Botanic Garden, one of the authors of the landscaping catalogue.

“From the point of view of human well-being, biodiversity is essential, because, without the functioning of the ecosystem, we would not have food or many other necessities of life. At the same time, biodiversity is currently decreasing everywhere in the world, because the area and quality of suitable habitats are decreasing due to human activities. We can all preserve the city’s biodiversity by preserving the habitats necessary for plants and animals in a favourable condition,” said the second author of the catalogue, Meelis Uustal, the leading nature conservation specialist of the Tallinn Environment and Municipal Board.

The landscaping catalogue has very good and comprehensive search options to find the most suitable plant for your garden or bed patch. For example, how tall it grows, what colour flowers it has so that it fits the surroundings, what light and moisture conditions the plant needs to grow, whether the plant is suitable for growing on the street, park or garden, how valuable the plant is for pollinators, etc.

Pollinators are beneficial insects that fly from flower to flower carrying pollen and help cross-pollinate plants – such as bumblebees, recluse bees, honeybees, lilacs, moths and butterflies. Thanks to pollinators, plants bear fruit better, and the harvest is more beautiful, more uniform and larger.

The bio-rich landscaping catalogue was completed in 2022 as part of the Putukaväila project. The content of the catalogue was put together by landscape architect Liivi Mäekalla and biome expert Meelis Uustal. The web application of the catalogue was made by Blueglass Interactive OÜ.