Over the past few years, a lot of homeowners have had a chance to reconnect with nature, and this, in turn, has made rewilding one of the biggest recent trends in landscaping.
It has naturally sparked a lot of debate, primarily centred around how it looks, its effect on the overall ambience of your home, if there are some unforeseen implications to designing your garden to attract wildlife and local flora, and whether you can retain control of its appearance.
To try and help explain the concept, if you are interested inrewilding your green spaces, here is a brief guide to what it is, what the benefits are and answer some common questions.
What Is Rewilding?
Broadly speaking, rewilding is about the restoration of natural habitats as much through inaction as through active preservation, which results in greater biodiversity, a more abundant habitat for animals and a place where wildflowers naturally grow.
For homeowners, rewilding a garden typically means leaving it to naturally grow and flower rather than undertaking a particularly aggressive habit of maintaining, mowing and pruning.
Alongside a wild lawn, it also involves planting flowers that locally grow, creating hedgerow highways and tiny holes in fences for small mammals such as hedgehogs to travel across, or creating living roofs that make your entire home part of your garden.
Many homeowners who grow plants in their garden, have a mulch pile or maintain a birdfeeder, already do some form of rewilding, and making a conscious effort to grow this effort can have some significant benefits.
What Are The Benefits Of Rewilding?
- It is easier to maintain: In general, a wild garden is far more about exploration and adventure than rigid maintenance, making gardening a lot more enjoyable.
- A greater abundance of nature: More birdsong, more wildlife and an ever-changing array of flowers provide a level of surprise that a more conventional lawn and flowerbed cannot.
- Easier to grow fruit: Wild patches often include berry bushes and trees which bear fruit. There are few better benefits to gardening than some apples andbrambles.
- Less waste and fewer pesticides: Allowing wildflowers to grow often saves money and protects the health of your soil by relying far less on weedkillers, whilst leaves and clippings turn into incredibly nutritiousmulch.
- Brings communities together: A lot of sceptics of rewilding as a principle tend to be turned around as soon as they see just how many butterflies, birds, hedgehogs and other elegant creatures end up in the garden, and this can turn it into a conversation starter.
Frequently Asked Questions About Rewilding
Of course, there are a lot of questions about rewilding, but here are some quick answers to some of the most common concerns people have raised.
Is A Rewilded Garden Messy?
Putting aside the notion that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the charm of gardens that have grown wild, rewilded gardens will have some control and even some pruned and mowed parts to make it look intentional and give yourself a space to sit.
In general, a rewilded garden only looks “messy” during the early transitional phases. Once it comes literally and figuratively alive, you are unlikely to have many complaints about the mess.
Do I Have To Let My Whole Garden Go Wild?
You can let it all go wild if you like, but you only have to commit as much or as little to rewilding. All of it makes a difference.
Alternatively, using vertical space by hanging baskets, a green wall, a trellis, or even a set of flower pots can make a difference.
Will A Rewilded Garden Attract Pests?
If your garden is carefully and thoughtfully managed, rewilding will often make it more resilient to pests and blight by avoiding the issues that come from a monoculture and encouraging natural predators to come along.