Re-wilding has passed the threshold for public acceptance.

Chelsea has a rewilding garden which I hope to see more of as the coverage progresses.

So long as it doesn’t take over good farming land with current food shortages.

25Avalon

So long as it doesn’t take over good farming land with current food shortages.

No that isn’t it’s point I think. For example there are long horn cattle - that are used for their docility and good family instincts that are completely free to wonder with minimal human intervention, likewise Tamworth’s and deer.

Looking at my untamed (to put it mildly) garden, I think I could claim that it has been re-wilded.

The re-wilding projects are wonderful but we all can do our bit too.
We're less able to get out and weed our garden, don't have a perfect lawn, therefore don't have a perfect garden, and have noticed an increase in the bird population this year.

Watching them pecking up ants, pulling worms is a delight.
I'm wondering how the increase in plastic grass in suburban gardens fits into all this.

Plastic grass is an abomination!

We just let the wild flowers (aka weeds!) grow in our grass too. And I have a couple of patches where I let the nettles be, as some of the butterflies like to lay eggs on them. I've left the few aphids that appeared on one of my roses too, a treat for the birds! Trying to do my bit!

WWM2, The Government has made grants available to farmers to rewild their land so good farming land could be taken out of food production unless it is carefully monitored, especially with farmers receiving so little return for their produce. That is what concerns me.

Rewilding can be good but it needs managing and joined up writing. Game keepers are no longer allowed to shoot certain predator birds, so now my garden, which is wild in places, has few smaller birds but large carrion crows etc. I saw two blue tits being chased by them yesterday.

This year (autumn) I’ve planted up a bees and butterfly bed. Dying to see the results. It is due to flower July - Sep.

Tbh I always try to plant for pollinators, although old English roses don’t provide much I think.

What I try to do is provide food all year around for them.

For the first time ever I decided to follow the "new" gardening advice and not have a general Autumn clean up but leave more of the seed heads & foliage in place for the birds & other creatures to use over winter. I have the most wonderful display of early Marigolds which I always believed were annuals that have sprouted from the old stalks.

After driving about more than normal recently from Hampshire to Somerset I had to clean bugs from my windscreen. Wasn’t a problem on a similar journey 18 months ago, I take this as a good sign.

Butterflies are in decline in Britain. Rewilding is important as is leaving already wild spaces alone.

Well I’m doing my bit..???

Whitewavemark2

This year (autumn) I’ve planted up a bees and butterfly bed. Dying to see the results. It is due to flower July - Sep.

Tbh I always try to plant for pollinators, although old English roses don’t provide much I think.

What I try to do is provide food all year around for them.

I planted a lavender bed for the bees a few years ago, and ended up with a swarm. I had to get a beekeeper out in full regalia!

None of it is real wilding, it is just a different way of managing the landscape. Nothing wrong with that, but why not say it for what it is.

Re wilding means leaving a large area of land alone and doing nothing, just leaving it to the weather and nature to decide how it should look.

An uncared garden is closer to rewilding than what is called rewilding.

Sparklefizz

Whitewavemark2

This year (autumn) I’ve planted up a bees and butterfly bed. Dying to see the results. It is due to flower July - Sep.

Tbh I always try to plant for pollinators, although old English roses don’t provide much I think.

What I try to do is provide food all year around for them.

I planted a lavender bed for the bees a few years ago, and ended up with a swarm. I had to get a beekeeper out in full regalia!

Where did your swarm live, sparklefizz? We had one in an unused chimney once. Local bee-keeper said just leave it. So we did and had no problems.

M0nica

None of it is real wilding, it is just a different way of managing the landscape. Nothing wrong with that, but why not say it for what it is.

Re wilding means leaving a large area of land alone and doing nothing, just leaving it to the weather and nature to decide how it should look.

An uncared garden is closer to rewilding than what is called rewilding.

Just so.

In some areas, protecting whatever grows – which will change over the years – from deer is necessary for anything to establish itself easily. But monica is right that sowing seeds or planting chosen plants is not re-wilding; it's gardening.

M0nica

None of it is real wilding, it is just a different way of managing the landscape. Nothing wrong with that, but why not say it for what it is.

Re wilding means leaving a large area of land alone and doing nothing, just leaving it to the weather and nature to decide how it should look.

An uncared garden is closer to rewilding than what is called rewilding.

Like mine? ??

M0nica

None of it is real wilding, it is just a different way of managing the landscape. Nothing wrong with that, but why not say it for what it is.

Re wilding means leaving a large area of land alone and doing nothing, just leaving it to the weather and nature to decide how it should look.

An uncared garden is closer to rewilding than what is called rewilding.

How is the landscape being managed at Knepp?

The couple farming Knepp have changed their farming regime and cosnciously managed the land to return it to what it was.

They are classic example of rewilding that is not rewilding.

*25Avalon

WWM2, The Government has made grants available to farmers to rewild their land so good farming land could be taken out of food production unless it is carefully monitored, especially with farmers receiving so little return for their produce. That is what concerns me.*

That is what concerms me as well Avalon. The Ukraine situation is repeating the WW2 situation where we realised how dependant we were on foreign imports of food. I'm not saying we shouldn't rewild, but can we rely on the Government to get the balance right?

Far better than rewilding is for farming to be more environmental friendly.

The rich and diverse flora and fauna of this country developed in a managed landscape, where agriculture worked with nature. land more suitable for grazing was not doused in fertiliser, pesticides and insecticides to produce crops, and cattle were not fed on unsuitable foods like soya and maize (grown where they used to graze) in order to make them grower bigger and faster so that they can be rushed to slaughter.

Knepp Farm shows this move back to working with nature at its most extravagent. They graze cattle tha can be sold under the Pasture for Life banner and commands a premium market.

Anyway when people 'rewild' what are they rewilding to? The country side as it was 100 years ago? 500 years? 1,000 years? 10,000years? All would be very different from each other.

Normally they are being rewilded to a time, or supposed time, or some imagined time of a nostalgic Arcadia which contains all the plants and animals that the rewilders wish to see, but do not contain any animals/plants they do not like.

I live on the South Downs and the biodiversity is so depleted it is a disaster as a result of intensive farming and grazing. Go down into the Weald and walk through the Knepp estate, and the biodiversity is astounding.

Knepp have worked and continue to work with various universities on the project, and have been awarded numerous conservation awards for outstanding landscape restoration.

Using Knepp as a model Queen Mary university are launching more re-wilding projects throughout the country. Self sustaining ecosystems will go towards helping biodiversity to recover, and later the reintroduction of natural species that were killed off because of this depleted landscape.

My DS has been involved in assisting the university with data collection using LiDAR. It shows the extent of vegetative growth, and how woodland and scrubland has expanded from 23% to 42%. This provides habitat and food for local species, helps prevent flooding and certainly enhances the beauty of the area.

Dismissing the idea as some sort of Arcadian dream is unfortunate and entirely misunderstanding the project.

Dr Alex Henshaw, Reader in Physical Geography at Queen Mary University of London said: “This project will be incredibly useful for understanding the form and function of the vast range of habitats that have regenerated at Knepp Wildland and other rewilding sites. We can already see an environment that has gone from strength to strength, where animals and plant species can thrive. We now have the data and methods needed to fully explore the important contributions of projects like Knepp.

“The dataset is also an important resource for rewilding sites across England, offering a blueprint for capturing the data and information they need to understand and evaluate rewilding directions and outcomes.

“With a huge number of species in England in decline, rewilding is arguably more important than ever.”

Baggs, a couple of years ago we had a swarm in a tree right outside our bedroom window. We were glad they chose us, and not the sort of neighbours who’d very likely have been alarmed.
They were no bother, and after a day or two took themselves off, presumably to a more des sort of res found by their scouts.