Re-wilding our gardens

Gardeners are good at word semantics. “Re-wilding” is all about creating a healthy garden ecosystem. Many of you may do this instinctively. I have spoken about this in terms of leaving dead stems for insects to use as shelter or leaving some leaves. All good for beneficial insects. Here are some other ways to re-wild your landscape.

Some of the things that we have started doing are using safer pesticides or not using pesticides at all. Some of us have gone to more organic weed killers. We’ve given up on slug pellets. In the extreme, some of us have even given up on using fertilizers. Adding compost, not high in animal manures, is a great way to build soil structure and over time higher nitrogen levels.

Some of us have concreted or rocked the entire areas around our homes except where we have left a small space for flowers or vegetables. Doing this can heat up the home in the summer and provide protection from winter winds. This increases the need for chemicals to attack the weed seeds that slide down in the rocks or cracks in the concrete.

Some of us have created ponds to bring more diversity to the garden. This will help bees with giving them much needed water. Even a small pond can encourage a lot of other beneficial insects, butterflies and plants.

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