Wilding the Urban Garden to Rewild Where You Live
Author of Wilding the Urban Garden
Rewilding is an increasingly influential element in international ecology and climate change awareness. Urban wildlife gardening is a key element in this; it can bring tremendous benefits to you, to your local wildlife, to the urban environment, and to the planet. And it’s not so hard to do.
Domestic gardens constitute a very significant part of the urban landscape, forming a quarter of the total area of many cities. They can also represent half of urban green space. In the US, more than 82% of the population lives in towns and cities. We’re becoming an ever more urban species.
Increased urban wildlife gardening could play a tremendous role in reversing the inexorable concreting over of valuable small green spaces, making a direct and significant contribution to addressing global issues of over-development, pollution, climate change and species extinction.
Conventional gardening doesn’t do the job nearly so well; it contributes significantly to ever rising carbon emissions, while wildlife gardens are extremely significant carbon sinks. Many declining wildlife species that were once common in the traditionally farmed countryside are now more abundant in urban areas.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if lots of urban gardeners decided to rewild at least a part of their gardens? A lot of it is just getting out of the way and letting nature do its thing. You’ll be surprised at just how many creatures appear in your vicinity when you let the habitat go wild and free. Let’s do this!
Gerry’s upcoming book Wilding the Urban Garden describes a year in the garden and shows how to do this yourself. You can get free extracts by signing up at urbanwildgarden.com
You can also learn more at facebook.com/UrbanWildGarden