Rewilding Which Began in the Eighties is Now More Than Ever a Necessary Thing
Consciously return to Nature all that is rightfully hers…now stand back and watch pure magic happen
Words to inspire...
Please take time to read and absorb the inspirational quote below. Maybe make yourself a nice cup of herbal tea. Now you’re well and truly ready.
‘The interior of the rain forest is overwhelming in its complexity. There is not a bare surface anywhere. Branches are hung with curtains of mosses and sprays of orchids dangle among them. Tree trunks are filmed over with algae, studded by giant ferns, and wound about with vines. Ants travel in convoys across the ground and up the trees, and metallic beetles glint in sun-flecks on the forest floor. The forest itself is richly textured, stems embossed with every manner of protuberance, leaves ornamented by spines and pleats, scales and fringes. Long shafts of sunlight cut through the dark canopy and catch the flash of iridescent butterfly wings before diffusing in the vegetation below.’
What picture does the quote conjure up for you?
To me, it’s Nature at work. But it’s also of a touch magic, reminiscent of a time when all-natural was a given, when Nature could easily do her job.
I am truly touched by the description, a wonderful representation of Nature in action, of the ongoing wilding that quietly occurs, promoting life.
Let me ask - is your garden evolving or heavily structured?
Most modern gardens evolve through blood, sweat and tears (and chemicals) in an effort to tame them into some sort of submission that produces the perfection we have been primed to honour.
But the fact is, Nature was never meant to be subdued at our hands.
She has her own set of rules where natural wilding just takes place, over and over again, a perfect give-and-take interaction, a weaving of life forms, and if we humans can stop and learn some of her practices, we will be rewarded handsomely for it.
Rewilding…
It used to be a term applied to large areas of land allowed to return to nature, just like the forest interior depicted below.
Today, with the environmental crisis we face, we are called upon to be part of regeneration, to backpedal, to step away from human intervention, to trust and allow things to happen.
Hard as it seems, we are called to do it.
Looking back…
The reason our domestic gardens came to be ordered, and perfect and admirable, has its origins in status.
We are praised for our swathes of lawns, our perfect flower beds, our canopies of well-behaved, beautifully-proportioned trees and shrubs, and it is nice to be complimented about how gorgeous everything looks.
But such gardens are no longer viable...
Now we are called upon to rethink how we might return at least part of our gardens to wildness, so that plants and minibeasts can find their natural homes.
We all like to be home. Other life forms are no different.
Rewilding is a little bit like standing back from intentional cultivation and allowing natural regeneration to take place, letting Nature play her part, and through that, allowing life forms to find and be secure in their restored natural homes.
We could start with our lawns...
I know nobody with the perfect lawn…not when you look closely…not in any way.
Nor do lawns support life. They are a monoculture, a grass that sucks from the earth and gives nothing back.
And yet, we’re prepared to give over so much of our precious lives cultivating them, this, an expanse of greenery that does nobody good.
Statistically speaking,
‘Lawns, not edible agriculture, are the biggest irrigated crop in America — and they are partly to blame for the decline in bees, insects and songbirds.’
Should we care?
If you’re not at all worried about insects disappearing, then no, but just remember this will affect many other ecosystems, which in turn will affect us all.
Personally we have neither fed, nor watered our lawn since moving here, and we have no intention of doing so. I covered over a section of lawn successfully in winter, and had my own plans, but then I found this advice on what to do next, and I’m glad I did because I want the change to be easy and not back-breaking.
Once you stop feeding your grass with fertilizer, the grass will thin out. Rake it to break up the soil. Sow a variety of seeds and water well.
Let the grass grow tall to provide shelter for wildlife — you can cut it after all the flowers have gone to seed late summer to enable germination for as many flowers as possible the following year; if you cut it in autumn or spring, you will also create space for flowers for the following year.
Choose a diversity of plants for year-round flowering and an abundance of food all year round.
If you have time and decide that the full rewilding approach is the right thing for you, you can simply sit back and let things happen naturally.
In all of this, trust your insects. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Still your efforts will be seen in a much shorter time.
Read and digest the quotes below...
As I was researching this story, I found the quotes below. Each of them is about biodiversity. Each should make all of us think about our practice.
The only biodiversity we’re going to have left is Coke versus Pepsi. … We’re landscaping the whole world one stupid mistake at a time.
To restore stability to our planet, therefore, we must restore its biodiversity, the very thing we have removed. It is the only way out of this crisis that we ourselves have created. We must rewild the world!
“Biodiversity” … is the key to the maintenance of the world as we know it. Life in a local site struck down by a passing storm springs back quickly because enough diversity still exists. … This is the assembly of life that took a billion years to evolve. It has eaten the storms — folded them into its genes — and created the world that created us. It holds the world steady.
So, what do you think?
Do you worry about the future for generations to come?
Could you see yourself growing a wildflower garden, or even wilding a small space in your garden?
I have the very spot for that in my garden. It’s right in a back corner, left by the previous owner, and I’ve been wondering how easily to make it over.
I think I now have the answer.
How about you?
Some related snippets…
https://rewildingeurope.com/what-is-rewilding/
https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk/how-to-rewild/rewilding-advice/12-steps-to-rewilding
https://greenly.earth/en-us/blog/ecology-news/the-arguments-for-and-against-rewilding