Renaturing (small ways to wild the world)

Renaturing is a lovely and unique book. We’ve all heard of rewilding, a good idea whether you own an estate or fund organisations to buy up land to provide natural habitats for birds and wildlife.

But this book focuses on a smaller scale, basically rewilding on your doorstep, starting in your garden! With a little bit of knowledge and care, you can rewild your outdoor space, to restore important habitats for all creatures, including insects and pollinators.

Use no-dig gardening (and avoid netting) to help wildlife (and ensure ponds have sloping sides). Also read our post on pet-friendly gardens. And learn how to stop birds flying into windows.

This is the story of a man who 20 years ago, moved from London to the countryside. Behind his farm labourer’s cottage with a small field, wit ha ‘for sale’ sign. Previously a place for family picnics and cricket matches, he knew that this 2-acre patch of land help great potential for nature to flourish.

So James decided to ‘rewild the field’. He built a wildlife-friendly pond, planted new meadows and created safe havens for wild birds and insects (and encouraged pollinators and wildlife, by encouraging flowers and plants). And soon what was once a grassy space, was again buzzing with life!

The author’s argument is that ‘rewilding’ can only really be done on a grand scale, if you own a country estate or on a government level. Renaturing is something smaller. It’s not mowing your lawn in May, planting a few pretty flowers for pollinators, not using chemicals to grow food and flowers. All of this is protecting nature, in a country that has now paved 50% of its gardens over.