Alexandra Campbell shares her tips on how to start rewilding your garden.
NEWSPAPERS often seem to suggest that the gardening world is torn apart by the rewilding debate.
The RHS and traditional gardeners, such as Monty Don or Alan Titchmarsh, are portrayed as being at loggerheads with the rewilding enthusiasts, pioneered by Isabella Tree at Knepp.
But once you look past the headlines, it’s clear that almost everyone in gardening strongly supports the idea that we need to relax our perspective on gardening to some extent.
It’s also widely agreed that our gardens are – and always should be – managed areas.
“It’s not about letting your garden go or abandoning it . . . allowing a garden to become overwhelmed will almost certainly decrease the diversity of plants and negatively affect insects, birds and other life,” Isabella points out.
The main issue is the impact of farming and gardening methods in the late 20th century.
Soil has become depleted and the numbers of some birds, mammals and insects have dropped to dangerously low levels.
We are at the top of the food chain – whatever goes on further down will affect us in some way.
Regarding rewilding your garden, the first question might be: should I let my garden go?
There’s a universal “no” to this one.
A few plants will take over and smother the others if we simply don’t do anything.
A mass of brambles will benefit a few species but leave too many others without good sources of pollen, food or shelter.
Some wildlife even need open spaces – for example, ivy mining bees need access to short grass.
In Isabella Tree’s “Book Of Wilding”, she says that in a big landscape, such as Knepp, herbivores – traditional cattle and wild ponies – are the first step towards rewilding.
Their grazing creates open areas of shorter grass and stops perennial plants, such as trees, bracken and brambles from spreading.
Their manure fertilises the soil, and their hooves or rootling move things around.
In a garden, Isabella suggests you see yourself as the “herbivore” – clearing, pruning and adding organic matter to the soil where it’s needed.
The most important step is to stop using pesticides.
Pesticides have never controlled pests completely, so this isn’t a question of going, for example, from having no snails to being overwhelmed with them.
We’ve all had nibbled leaves, but letting go of pesticides means putti
