The surprising benefits of rewilding your garden
Rewilding is one of the best things you can do for biodiversity on your farm or garden. If you no longer mow the lawn, flowers will begin to grow, creating a meadow and habitat for creatures that are often forgotten about.
Below is an excerpt Fit Vegetable Garden By SallyMorgan. It has been adapted for utilize on the Internet.
Wilding your garden: lots of benefits
Oak seedling among blackberries.
I have seen first-hand how our farm’s biodiversity has increased over 16 years thanks to our organic, agro-ecological management. We built ponds, planted willow trees, and our hedgerows grew huge and chunky.
I didn’t realize how significant compact, blackberry-covered areas were to trees until I saw how they allowed tree seedlings to survive beyond the reach of foraging animals.
Now a up-to-date generation of oak trees appears on the farm.
Where might rewilding occur?
It is possible to become wild even in the smallest of spaces. This doesn’t mean you let nature take over your entire garden.
If you do this, you usually end up with more invasive weeds, and while it’s nice to have a patch of blackberries on your farm, you don’t want these species taking over a compact garden.
However, you can relax and create areas where wildlife can thrive, such as a compact grove in the corner, an area of lofty grass, some overgrown bushes, a few piles of wood, and compact ponds.
These will create a mosaic of interconnected habitats that will attract a wide range of species.
Lawn
It’s basic to give up some control over your lawn. Throw out the weed killer and fertilizer and let a few flowers grow. Or simply make a higher cut so that more animals living on the ground survive the blades.
Even our formal lawns receive no “maintenance” other than infrequent mowing. We harvest cuttings because they are full of nutrients and encourage more dominant grasses to grow (I utilize the clippings as mulch).
Over time, soil fertility has declined and now favors less competitive native species. Lawns are now a mixture of flowering plants, grasses and mosses that tolerate mowing.
I counted 14 different species (other than grasses and mosses): buttercup, cinquefoil, red and white clover, daisy, dandelion, hawkweed, English ivy, scarlet weed, common plantain, self-healing, sorrel, speedwell and violets.
It’s fascinating to watch the mix change from the sunnier to the shadier east side of the house.
Other ideas include creating patterns in the lawn by leaving strips unmown, or leaving a strip at the back to create a wildflower meadow by leaving it unmown in summer.
To make things work, you can plant some pretty native meadow flowers. Mow the meadow once a year, after flowering, to prevent more aggressive plants from establishing themselves.
Hedges and borders
Walk along the hedgerow in slow spring and you’ll see the open flowers of cow parsley, hogweed and other umbellate species covered with predatory wasps and beetles, which then move into fields to facilitate control crop pests.
The hedge provides year-round shelter for natural predators. You can create hedges along the borders and plant shrubs in other places.
Wildlife shelter
Create shelters and habitats under trees and bushes by stacking compact logs and covering them with twigs and fallen leaves.
They are perfect for ground beetles, spiders and other invertebrates, as well as snakes, toads and even hedgehogs. You can build insect hotels and wooden boxes with molds.
Even piles of elderly clay pipes can provide significant shelter.
Nettle patch
Nettles (Urtica dioica) encourage insects and are a food plant for the caterpillars of the hawksbill, red admiral, peacock and comma butterfly, as well as a few moths.
In fact, About 50 different species of insects are associated with nettle because the sting protects them from grazing animals.
To get the most benefit for wildlife, don’t plant your nettle bed in a shady corner as you need a radiant spot to attract butterflies.
Prune nettles in summer to encourage up-to-date leaf blooms. after first checking for caterpillars and predators.
Nettles can be picked (with gloves) to prepare nettle infusion or for consumption, as the juvenile leaves are very nutritious.
Build a pond
A pond or compact wetland area is probably the most beneficial feature you can create for wildlife.
This can be as uncomplicated as a compact container or half a barrel, but if you have the space, a clay-lined pond with a deep surface and a shallow edge is ideal. It will attract animals such as dragonflies and damselflies, newts, frogs, toads and grass snakes, and will also provide drinking water for birds and mammals.
Utilize vertical spaces
Make sure walls, fences and arches are covered with plants.
A wall or fence covered with vines, honeysuckle or ivy not only looks great, but also they can provide nesting sites for many of our garden birds, and the flowers and berries are a source of food and attract pollinators.
Ivy flowers in autumn provide bees with a last boost of energy before hibernation.
Plant a tree
There is always room for a tree in the garden; you just need to check if it is suitable for your space.
The tree creates another layer in the gardenso it will be inhabited by another group of insects and birds.
It will shade the area below, creating more diverse microhabitats, and will contribute to leaf litter in the fall. It will provide a cooling effect even on a scorching day.