{"id":3630,"date":"2022-03-08T07:04:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-08T15:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3630"},"modified":"2022-03-08T07:04:12","modified_gmt":"2022-03-08T15:04:12","slug":"rewilding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/rewilding\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewilding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rewilding\"<\/a>As I look out on my winter-weary garden, I am reminded of the newest fashion in gardening\u2013\u201drewilding\u201d. It is popping up with increasing frequency in gardening publications, especially those emanating from Great Britain.\u00a0 Clearly as far as \u201crewilding\u201d goes, I am fashion forward.\u00a0 In fact, at this moment, considering all that I neglected to do last fall, I may not even need the \u201cre\u201d in \u201crewilding\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRewilding\u201d has long been used by conservationists to describe the restoration of degraded ecosystems on a large scale by removing invasive species, restoring natural habitats and curbing development of rewilded areas.\u00a0 But as habitat gardening, wildlife gardening, pollinator gardening and other forms of eco-friendly horticulture have gained momentum, people have applied the rewilding concept to home landscapes.\u00a0 If you do an internet search these days, you will find all kinds of articles with titles like \u201cFive easy ways to rewild your garden.\u201d\u00a0 The best indication that rewilding has really caught on is the birth of a new verb\u2013\u201dto rewild\u201d.<\/p>\n

So how do you rewild your garden?\u00a0 The first step, according to many guides, is to let weeds grow.\u00a0 This is anathema to tidy gardeners, especially those with an addiction to pre-emergent herbicides.<\/p>\n

Weeds grow freely in my garden and some of them, especially violets and the clover that grows so enthusiastically in the lawn, get a pass from me.\u00a0 I draw the line at onion grass or Allium vineale.\u00a0 It is an alien invasive anyway and its presence violates the rewilding concept.<\/p>\n

Letting the grass grow long is another gateway to rewilding, but letting the front yard become meadow-like generally upsets the neighbors and, in some places, may bring down the wrath of the local municipality.\u00a0 I compromise by setting the mower a little higher and keeping the grass free of herbicides or supplemental water.\u00a0 My grass is so healthy and springy that a friend who aspires to a putting green-like lawn, does not believe me when I tell him that my grass is completely neglected.<\/p>\n

Mulching with organic material, like bark chips, is a rewilding step that helps build the soil, and keeps down unwanted vegetation.\u00a0 It is easier on the back than digging and a lot less work than tilling, which is a plus for all weekend yard warriors.<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t turn your property into a full-fledged wildlife preserve harboring a plethora of native species, you can leave a corner or two undisturbed.\u00a0 Many of us do that by default.\u00a0 The southeast corner of my back garden wins the prize for most frequently neglected spot.\u00a0 If I can control the rampant English ivy, which is not native, it might make an excellent, reasonably unobtrusive\u00a0 mini-habitat.<\/p>\n

Untended corners can also be home to other rewilding elements like log piles and\/or rockeries.<\/p>\n

Reducing hard landscaping, like concrete paths, helps to ease runoff water issues, but if your landscape contains outdoor living spaces, the best approach is to pave with porous materials like pea gravel or non-mortared pavers.\u00a0 Dry-laid stone walls are a boundary option, because they also have lots of crevices for small plants, animals and insects.<\/p>\n

Many of us want some kind of boundary between our properties and those of our neighbors.\u00a0 Instead of fencing, rewild with a native hedge or, even better, a mixed native hedge for biodiversity.<\/p>\n

One thing most of the rewilding articles neglect to mention is the fact that a lot of rewilding has taken place in suburban areas without any human help at all.\u00a0 Deer, those monarchs of the forest and scourge of home gardeners, are everywhere and the populations of racoons, skunks and possums have all surged.\u00a0 Fifteen years ago it was rare to see a fox in my town, now they are sighted regularly.<\/p>\n

Despite the increase in some species, others, especially insects and birds, are declining.\u00a0 A little rewilding can help a lot of those smaller creatures and play a small part in making the planet healthier.<\/p>\n

One last thought about rewilding\u2013doing it means encouraging a wide variety of species, not just the ones that are cute and likable.\u00a0 You can\u2019t encourage butterflies without also tolerating the beatles, moths, wasps and earwigs that come with them.\u00a0 There is also no way to \u201copt out\u201d of skunks.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, if you do a little rewilding and tend your lawn and garden along organic lines, the ecosystem will eventually balance out.\u00a0 The birds will eat at least some of the bugs you don\u2019t want and the deer may even browse on weeds in your rewilded corner.\u00a0 All species, including the human ones, will live just a little better.<\/p>\n

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As I look out on my winter-weary garden, I am reminded of the newest fashion in gardening\u2013\u201drewilding\u201d. It is popping up with increasing frequency in gardening publications, especially those emanating from Great Britain.\u00a0 Clearly as far as \u201crewilding\u201d goes, I am fashion forward.\u00a0 In fact, at this moment, considering all that I neglected to do … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,5],"tags":[2671,980,2670,448,2669,944],"class_list":["post-3630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-winter","tag-european-garden-trends","tag-habitat-gardening","tag-low-maintenance-landscaping","tag-native-plants","tag-rewilding","tag-sustainable-gardening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3632,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3630\/revisions\/3632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}