Gardeners across the country have turned to social media to show off their much-loved patches of wild garden in protest after remarks from their gardening heroes Monty Don and Alan Titchmarsh, branding rewilding as “puritanical nonsense” and claiming gardeners have been “brainwashed by current trends” to let your garden go wild.
Their comments come after this year’s Chelsea Flower Show hit the headlines thanks to the number of show gardens featuring ‘weeds’ such as stinging nettles, dandelions and buttercups in line with the current vogue for rewilding green spaces.
The term ‘rewilding’ is hard to define but for me it stems from the central principle of humans acknowledging we are part of, rather than separate from, the natural world and so making positive interventions to it. It is a mistake to think rewilding means not doing anything.
The UK is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world with 30 per cent of our bird species threatened with extinction — we must do something about that. Even small changes in our approach to gardening that improve spaces for biodiversity count as rewilding in my book.
Londoners reading this may wonder what this has to do with them. While urban rewilding takes a different form to countryside management, there is lots city dwellers can do to add greenery to the capital. There was a 36 per cent rise in paved front gardens between 2005 and 2015 — great for off-street parking, not so good for the wider environment. Meanwhile guerilla gardeners like Ellen Miles and Richard Reynolds have long been in battle with bodies including TfL and local authorities to add more gardens to the public realm.
Organisations like Grow to Know have begun to reclaim urban spaces in some of the least green parts of London. This reclamation of space to let all plants grow would certainly fall within my definition of rewilding and benefits both people and the wider environment we exist in.
Both Titchmarsh and Don are passionate gardeners, fully aware of the importance of wildlife and biodiversity for gardens. Titchmarsh has talked passionately about a meadow he has created at his home over the past few years and Don has been gardening organically for most of his career. Let’s not write these two giants of the garden off as out of touch yet.
Instead, let’s consider what’s going on. Part of the problem here seems to be that rewilding is being confused with doing nothing. I agree with both men that this is not gardening.
After all, our cities are manmade spaces. In London, without herbivores to graze, a totally hands off approach to land leads to brambles, followed by the dreaded Japanese knotweed, and eventually birch, ash, buddleia and Ailanthus will fill the space. A total lack of human intervention, ironically, could create an unnatural environment where one species dominates and biodiversity is reduced. In this regard, Titchmarsh and Don are absolutely right to be sceptical.
So how can you responsibly ‘re-wild’ in London?
It could be as simple as letting the little weeds grow under big plants. Weeds provide shade for the soil and protect it from bad weather. Lots flower, which is great for pollinators, and they provide shelter and food for other things living in the ecosystem.
Lifting a paving slap or brick (or more) in your garden and sowing wildflower seeds is another idea.
If you are lucky enough to have a lawn and have space to let it grow, allow it to become a meadow. If you are going to do this in a small garden, Titchmarsh himself advises you make it intentional by “mowing a strip around the edge, and a path through it if you want to”. This strikes me as a reasonable compromise. And that, after all, is the secret to this whole endeavour.
