Though often referred to as if they are the same, churchyards and cemeteries aren’t the same. It's about location and ownership. Whereas churchyards are attached to and belong to the church (or other religious community), cemeteries are usually separate and owned by councils.

No one rightly knows how many churchyards, cemeteries and burial grounds exist in the UK. English Heritage says it's between 12-20,000 in England and Wales alone. But what is certain is that many have been with us for millennia and the number is growing.

And with so many of them the area of land covered is huge. And that is important for biodiversity, because not only are they places where we bury our dead, they are home to a great number of wild flowers, wild animals and more. For example, if you wanted to look for lichen, what better place to start than on a gravestone.

Burial grounds are great levellers. Rich or poor it makes no difference. When we arrive we are all the same.

Steve Jobs understood this when he said “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me. Going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me.” And cemeteries give us all the chance to do something wonderful for they are a place where, as we respect those residing there, we can also respect nature.

Our cemeteries are places where the dead can dwell amongst nature. Where they can see the barn owl hunting mice, the omnivorous fox hunting lizards, rabbits or blackberries and endearing dormice climbing the hazel and bramble in the surrounding hedges.

Of course we don’t want our cemeteries to become overgrown. That’s disrespectful to the dead and to their loving relatives wishing to visit the graves. It's also unlikely to provide a biodiverse habitat for wildlife. We need good pathways for people and wildlife where graves are visited and tended. But in areas where no one visits we can let the flowers bloom and wildlife enjoy the area undisturbed. That's not to say these areas should be left to their own devices as they would soon return to woodland. But with careful management and a management plan where they are cut once or twice a year we can ensure a biodiverse environment that respects the purpose of a burial ground.

In recent years natural burials have become more popular. Six years ago a friend of mine planned his own funeral and burial as he died of cancer. He chose a natural burial ground and didn’t see uncut grass and wildflowers as disrespectful. It was his dying wish to be buried amongst nature.

And that’s an important consideration in managing churchyards, cemeteries and other burial grounds. They are not gardens. But neither are they wild countryside.

Stefan Buczacki (botanist, broadcaster and author of Earth to Earth amongst other books. You may recall him from when he chaired BBC Gardeners’ Question Time) reminded me of this recently when he contributed an article to the SVBG website (https://bit.ly/Churchyard). As Buczacki wrote, “churchyard management for wild life is principally about conservation – conserving what is there, not generally trying to create something that is not.”

I understand how cemetery management is an emotional topic. But I believe we can respect the dead, respect the living and conserve a biodiverse environment. It’s not about saving money by letting cemeteries go to wrack and ruin. A good management plan isn’t going to save money. But it is going to give people pleasure in seeing wildlife. And it's going to respect those that want to visit graves. Getting that balance isn't easy. But it's not impossible and we owe it to the living and the dead to get it right.

I hope the cemetery I finally lay my head down in has the right balance and everyone is happy.