Some small steps to consider implementing this new year
• Make a sign. All over the world, people are creating homemade signs saying “This is an ARK, an Act of Restorative Kindness to the Earth” – nd out more at wearetheark.org. This removes the ‘shame’ which can be associated with a less-than-perfect garden. It helps your neighbours understand that you are not just being a lazy git, that you are doing something very important. And maybe they might join you!
• Make a decision to stop spraying poisons or applying petroleum-based fertilisers. Let the earth have some small places to rest, recover and a chance to nd ways to restore her life-giving systems from the onslaught of chemicals we have subjected her to.
• Take a long, slow observation of your existing non-native plants and if you can manage to remove any of them, and replace them with native versions, it will attract many more creatures into your land as a result. The removed plants can become part of a dead hedge perhaps, another huge wildlife support and pantry. In an Ark, death is just as important as life. Non-native invasive weeds on the other hand, must be removed and destroyed in accordance with recommendations, in case there is any chance of them spreading.
• Think about building a pond, even if it is just a basin, sunk into the ground with stones placed inside to provide escape for any creatures that come to take a drink. It is very hard for our wild kin to nd sources of clean water these days. A bird bath is another wonderful addition. It’s the sweetest thing, watching them take a bath. It lls my heart with cuteness every time.
• Make holes in your boundaries to allow wildlife to pass through. Try to replace solid boundaries with native living hedges. Perhaps have a chat with your neighbours to get this across the line.
• Remove any outdoor lights if you can, as they are a big part of the collapse of nighttime pollinators and the creatures that feed on them, such as bats. If you can’t remove them, replace the bulbs with red or amber toned bulbs or lters. The white and blue toned LED lights are the worst.
• Allow your planting beds to become lled with native herbs, what we call weeds. It may be a di cult change at rst, a lot of letting go of deeply ingrained beliefs, but if you let them be, you will see how much life ocks to them for support. All our native plants have evolved alongside native insects in the local food web. They need each other, and we need to stop removing them.
• Why not think about growing some of your own food? It is so rewarding and nourishing and it is the best way to enforce change on the destructive system that is industrial agriculture, to step away from it as much as possible. If you have lots of land, then consider sharing some of it with friends and family who don’t have any land to grow food. You can build communities this way; it brings life back in more ways than one.
A new year brings an opportunity to step into our roles as guardians instead of gardeners.
A small step for your garden, a huge leap for our shared wild kin.