Editorial

– Andy Goldsworthy

Jo McCarroll makes a case for going wild in your own garden.

In this issue we have an interesting piece by the landscape architect and ecologist Renee Davies on the global conservation movement known as wilding (or rewilding), and how its underlying principles might be applied in your own garden.

Wilding, for those who have not come across the term, is a form of environmental conservation and ecological restoration that attempts to restore ecosystems to something closer to what would exist without human intervention. Advocates claim it can help increase biodiversity, reverse ecological decline and mitigate climate change.

I first came across the term myself when I read Isabella Tree’s excellent book Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm, an account of the attempt to renew the ecosystem of 1400 hectares owned by Isabella and her husband Charlie Burrell in West Sussex, UK. The property had been intensively farmed for decades, but had always struggled to turn a profit. Facing bankruptcy in 2001 the couple decided to step back and let nature take the lead. In Wilding, Isabella describes the extraordinary and unanticipated results, as plants and animals returned in astonishing profusion. Knepp Castle Estate is now a breeding hotspot for some extremely rare species – including showponies such as turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons and purple emperor butterflies, but also, and just as importantly, abundant in both rare and common species of plants, insects, bats and even fungi.

While the story of what became known as the ‘Knepp experiment’ is immensely uplifting (if you haven’t read it, I really do recommend it), Isabella does not shy away from detailing the many challenges they faced along the way, including public criticism, personal doubts and practical delays. But she also has to constantly battle, especially in the beginning, against people’s wish for things to be “tidy”.

That human desire for tidiness – or perhaps really for control – is probably the biggest hurdle to introducing elements of wilding in domestic and urban spaces. In Renee’s piece, she quotes the ecological consultant and author Isobel Gabites, who says “the antithesis to a wildlife haven is a tidy garden”. I have heard from friends who work in municipal horticultural how one of the main problems faced by wilding efforts in public spaces – unmown areas left in parks or around sportsfields, say – is the outrage from local residents about “the mess”.

But I visit a lot of gardens and I think I have seen, over the last few years, a relaxation in the control that gardeners seek to exert over nature. There has been a general move away from manicured lawns and immaculate hedges, and an increasing reluctance to deploy herbicides and pesticides. Gardeners are still, well, gardening (just to be clear, simply leaving a garden “to go wild” is likely to leave you with nothing other than a thicket of harmful exotic weeds, rather than a rich diversity of plants that supports a range of birds and insects; there is a difference between neglect and an active practice to maximise the richness of an ecosystem). But perhaps we are more aware that in attempting to control nature, you limit what nature can achieve.

My garden is, absolutely, still a managed space. I try (and try and try) to eradicate harmful weed species and pest predators, and as well as a heap of native plants, I grow and enjoy growing a whole range of (non-weedy) exotics. But I think I am, increasingly at least, trying to meet nature halfway. I’d love to hear whether you felt your garden and the way you gardened had changed too.