Rewilding: Tackle the climate and nature crisis from home

Our ambassador, Rachel, shares how rewilding spaces in your garden can help to tackle the climate and nature crisis here in Wales.

I’ve always had a keen interest in nature and wildlife. I’ve never got into it seriously, but enough to be able to recognise common visitors to the garden and surrounding areas. I’ve lived most of my life with easy access to open countryside, and for the last 20 years my family and I have lived in a semi-rural area: our house is separated from the main road by a public footpath which runs along an old railway line, so we benefit from there being a ‘wilderness’ space. We’ve always fed the birds in the winter and tried to protect them from predators, mainly neighbourhood cats, using harmless methods. We’d introduced trees (Birches, a Yew, Corkscrew Hazel), shrubs (Viburnum, Winter Jasmine, Witch Hazel), climbers (Rambling Rose, Honeysuckle, Clematis), and a range of other flowering plants such as Cotoneaster, Buddleia and Caryopteris (Bluebeard) into our very modestly-sized garden as soon as we bought the house, so there was already plenty of cover and both early and late nectar. A couple of years ago, however, we decided to take it a step further and ‘rewild’ the garden.

Rewilding?

Essentially, we let nature take over! The garden has effectively become an extension of the scrub on the other side of the fence. We let the ‘weeds’, especially the dandelions, which so many bees, hoverflies and plenty of insects love, seed and grow. The birds enjoy the seeds, too. We do not clear the fallen leaves, leaving them for all sorts of creatures to use as shelter. We dug up some of what little grass we have – while letting the rest just grow – and sowed some Wildflower seed mix into the bare ground and into the grass that was left, though most of the wild flowers in the garden probably blew in from over the fence: we have Knapweed, White and Red Clover, Oxeye Daisies, Nipplewort, Self Heal, Buttercups, Forget-me-nots, and Bugle. We dug a pond that is approximately 30cm deep when completely full. Most of it is less than 8cm deep with no steep sides. It was created with play sand and rain-washed gravel over a liner and let it fill with rainwater. We gathered seeds and have planted only things that grow naturally in and around the area – among the grasses are Yellow Flag Iris, Marsh Marigold, Purple Loosestrife and Vetch. Whilst it is now 2 years old it is still establishing itself and it will only properly retain water once the grasses around it have grown up.

It depends on the weather

The changeable weather brings challenges in terms of sustaining the garden and supporting the wildlife that visits. This year, we’ve consciously raised the cut height of the lawnmower so that the tiny lawned area is kept longer, helping to retain moisture in the soil. We’ve also found that we need to keep the pond topped up from the water butt. Not only are the amphibians and other pond dwellers affected by the lack of depth in the pond as it dries in the hot weather, but we have also noticed that the birds are not happy visiting to drink or bathe when the level gets too low or green algae takes over. We are lucky in that we don’t flood where we are, and we have left a boggy area beneath the pond, so if it does overflow in wet weather, the plants there can take the extra water. Heavy rain also means flying insects can’t get out to feed, but they do require the shelter this provides. Conversely, snails and slugs love it when it’s wet and make the most of stripping the Hostas of their leaves at this time, depriving the bees of one of their favourite places to drink!

It’s a fine balance.