AIBU about rewilding?

[monpetitlapin]

I'm in two minds about this and would be interested to know what wise Mumsnetters think. On one hand, I think Titchmarsh is right that "rewilding" probably produces less biodiversity than cultivated beds that are thoughtfully planted, but on the other hand, surely "rewilding" is better for manicured lawns?
So AIBU to think he hasn't entirely thought this through?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12305285/Alan-Titchmarsh-warns-trendy-rewilded-gardens-catastrophic-wildlife.html

Sorry, also found an Indie link for anyone who doesn't like to click DM: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/alan-titchmarsh-rewilding-gardens-biodiversity-b2376471.html

I was reading some of the comments under from people who pointed out his vested interest in maintaining the traditional garden setup. Also some comments mentioned his prior paid promotion of commercial pesticides (I think) so maybe he has a financial reason to promote this. That said I am personally none the wiser as to whether either of these are true, so am following out of interest to see what others think.

Hardly an impartial opinion though, 'rewilding' or low maintenance gardens compared to cultivated beds that are thoughtfully planted is bad for Alan's career.

Well my lawnmower broke in May so we did no mow May , June and July and we have had loads of butterflies. Not sure if it’s a coincidence but it’s nice to see the garden return to green as my best efforts at trying to grow stuff always ends in failure

i think it’s interesting because there is a huge difference in letting your garden get feral to the point where it’s overgrown with brambles; vs removing all natural grass / plants and replacing with fake plastic grass and wood chippings

In balance, I think tending to the natural areas in a way that allows the plants to flourish and to support wildlife in whatever way is best for those plants is the best outcome

But most people (at least in my street) don't have well planted gardens. In my street it's all gravel patches and over-mowed lawns except for mine which happens to be where all the butterflies and bees hang out, and also the birds.

1: he has vested interests.

2: defends pesticides

3: single handedly caused fucking decking

4: is not basing this on data

Conclusion: utter bollox

I agree to a certain extent. I very actively manage my garden for wildlife - if I leave it to 'rewild' then it gets taken over by thugs like brambles and ground elder etc. On a smaller scale neglect won't result in a balanced ecosystem so I actively 'weed' out thugs and plant beds for both biodiversity and the way they look. I think a lot of people think that rewilding means just not mowing or gardening much - that's a valid choice but it won't create the best environment in patches the size of gardens.

But it's really not a good look to be shitting on the concept of rewilding right now and they could have phrased it so much better. Seems like a headline calibrated for clicks more than anything!

It depends on where your coming from doesn't it? A carefully planted bed (and not sprayed into oblivion) with a mixture of natives and non-natives from similar climates offers good diversity and a long season for pollinators - that's if it's not full of double petalled flowers which don't produce pollen and have little to offer. Some invertebrates are specific in their feeding, and non-natives won't attract them, others like spiders are interested in the infrastructure and don't care whether they dangle their web from a native or a non-native, or even garden furniture or a basket that's been left outside too long.

A carefully tended "weed free" lawn has very little to offer wildlife.

A "wildflower" area is probably as good as the flower bed in the summer but doesn't give as long a season (though a quick look at the number of caterpillars whose food plant is some type of grass gives the lie to it "only" producing hay). And since most people turn either lawn or just one bed to wildflowers it's going to be an improvement. We're not talking in general about people turning over their whole garden to a hay meadow.

The RHS research and advice makes it clear that "near natives" have a valuable contribution to make.

Something not to be overlooked is that the "rewilding trend" has brought a lot of people into an interest in gardening and/or nature conservation and this is of more value than any individual contribution. No government will deal with climate change in an effective manner unless they think there's votes in it.

To clarify: on a large scale rewilding works well not just because of plants but also animals - deer, rabbits, even some livestock play an important role in keeping aggressive plants under control and making room for others to flourish (look at the amazing work at Knepp) but gardens are fenced off and not accessible to a lot of these animals any more so it's up to us to play the role of custodian. I agree with a lot of what he's saying, but the delivery sucks

Brambles, despite their bad press, are quite good for wildlife - cover for small mammals, fruit, and have you seen the number of bees on the flowers? Wood chippings are good for invertebrates (otherwise the blackbirds wouldn't spend so long chucking it all over the place). Plastic grass, on the other hand . ..

On a large scale, rewilding needs to be done carefully otherwise it all gets taken over by bracken and brambles. On a garden scale, anything that flowers is good news, and anything that grows is better than concrete/astro/decking.

Neat, short lawns are fairly useless for biodiversity, but still good for drainage. And lovely long wildflower meadows are a haven for ticks, and rubbish for playing football on.

Like anything in life it’s more complex than it first appears.

The very BEST book I’ve ever read is Dave Goulsons book, The Garden Jungle (Gardening to Save the Planet).

In it he explains that just letting your grass grow, will mean that certain dominant weeds will take over the first season, but that by the third year you can get a good diversity.

Next he mentions that wild meadow seed packets may not always be as diverse or native as we may think. There will be some who think that only British native weeds should be grown.

And lastly he points out that a lot of plants we buy in garden centres are not native and have the wrong shape/no smell for our native wildlife. He suggests when at a big garden centre to buy only those plants/flowers that have a lot of insects buzzing near. He also points out that most plants will have been grown in pesticide treated soil, and that soil with have residues of those chemicals in when you put it into your garden.

So in a very small way AT is right. Just leaving your grass alone to grow, may not be as diverse as a well managed garden (that is planted with wildlife in mind) in the first season. He should be making an effort to tell us how to be more diverse, not dissing most people’s efforts.

I don’t know what ATs commercial interests are, but I assume he was taught the old school style of gardening, which used to be all about pesticides, perfect flowers and not a greenfly or slug insight.

Ive just moved and have only cut my lawn once so far this year. I still think I have more insects, and thus more birds than if I’d kept it short.

We should all care about the wildlife in our gardens, it will be sad if people take AT’s words at face value

We are lucky to have a big garden, and have also planted up a separate meadow. I sat quietly in the meadow yesterday in order to gather some yellow rattle seeds that a friend wants. It is absolutely teeming with life. And we've noticed more birdsong in the three years since we went wilder. There is no way what we had before is more beneficial. It's also very beautiful and requires mimimum effort

I agree with Alan - but I don’t see this happening so much in private gardens, where a section of lawn is given over to wildflower meadows, but more in the vast tracts of what used to be public green space, owned by the local authorities.
In my area, they leave most of the commons and pavement verges un-mowed for far longer than they used to, allowing nettles and other nasties to take hold: we are seeing the return of Giant Hogweed and Hemlock, too and, of course, a larger proliferation of Mosquitoes, Ticks and Horsefly.
”No-Mow May” rendered all of our local play parks into wild meadow which wasn’t mowed until the end of June. I was bitten really badly in May and June as a result and I react really badly to insect bites, anyway, but this year was the worst.
So, IMO, it’s public landowners (Councils) that need to stop enthusiastically embracing the excuse that they are helping the environment just because it saves them money!

Titchmarsh isn't my kind of gardener at all, and as others have pointed out, has a vested interest in promoted highly cultivated, high maintenance gardens. His whole approach is really dated. Give me Monty Don any day of the week.

Research shows that the best gardens for wildlife have a mix of habitats and different types of planting. (My parents are keen gardeners and my dad worked most of his life in conservation and environmental protection, so they've done tons of research and learning about this.)

People have different notions about what 'rewilding' means. Literally just letting your garden go to waist-high grass and brambles is certainly better than plastic grass, paving, no plants and a patio heater - but isn't actually that great for biodiversity (and also means that your garden becomes a space that you can't actually use to sit and relax and engage with nature in).

However, a manicured lawn, only planting annuals every year that you just grow and throw away, killing off all the daisies and clover in your lawn, using pesticides and weedkillers, over-pruning, growing plants that need feeding or aren't right for your soil type or climate, and throwing peat-based compost and chemical fertilisers down all the time isn't good either.

Planting a good mix of low maintenance, hardy flowering plants that don't need huge amounts of water and don't need soil pH adjustments, leaving seed-heads up over winter instead of dead-heading/cutting back, having a range of different, insect-attracting plants/shrubs for pollinators, and letting things like clover, dandelions and buttercups grow in your lawn instead digging them up and mowing every week, is usually great for wildlife. If you've got the space, a wild corner where you let some nettles and stuff grow and have a pile of old logs is good, as is a nature pond (so a natural pond with native water plants, untreated water and no goldfish). Basically you want a nice mix of habitats and minimal intervention/watering, no pesticides, slug pellets or artificial weedkillers, but equally you need to keep an eye on things to make sure that one plant isn't taking over everything else and that you've still got a nice variety going on.

nettles and other nasties

Nettles are GREAT for wildlife. They support dozens and dozens of insect species, including many of our most beautiful and well-loved butterflies. Seriously, if you can find a corner for nettles, let them grow a bit!

I was bitten really badly in May and June as a result and I react really badly to insect bites,

I have an extremely bad reaction to insect bites too, but I still accept that biting insects are part of our biodiversity. Birds and bats eat them.

Giant Hogweed

Most local authorities will remove giant hogweed even from 'rewilding' spaces, although they aren't obliged to do so.

Alan Titchmarsh needs to think a bit more carefully about soil biodiversity, larval food plants and hibernation sites amongst many other things before spouting this sort of rubbish in the national news.

When we moved into our (rented) property the garden was an absolute state of brambles which had put down suckers everywhere and couch grass. That was pretty much all there was but we think the previous tenant had had ideas about rewilding but in actual fact think this was an excuse to not maintain it (as she appeared to have similar ideas re cleanliness of the house). I think there's a place for rewilding stretches of land, eg swathes of common land / public land etc, verges, hedgerows etc etc and probably in people's gardens perhaps a section (somewhat dependant on size of garden) dedicated to wildflowers, not mown etc albeit it certainly helps if you do actually sow a diverse range of wildflowers. And then a cultivated section. We have a couple of beds we haven't got to tidying/planting yet but our cultivated beds certainly have a lot more flowers which attract pollinators.

Either way, either rewilded or cultivated is always going to be better than tarmac / all paved / plastic grass plants and fake grass though....

@ManateeFair Nettles are ok except when it’s impossible to avoid them on the paths - I agree about their insect attraction though.
Bites - I got some great advice on here and purchased a Beurer BR 60 insect bite healer which really helped with the initial irritation (which lasted 2-3 weeks😨)
Giant Hogweed is really awful, and can leave you scarred for life. Because it hasn’t been seen in the wild for many years (I’m old!) younger people might not realise this and handle it or touch it. I believe the reason it’s coming back is because of the lack of regular mowing in public places. I wish that Councils would at least keep enclosed footpaths clear, and maybe mow a 2m path into meadows to allow enjoyment without having to avoid the “nasties” (in the sense of regretting attempting to walk through it!)

One of the problems with wildflower meadows/patches is that they are often planted with a very generic seed mix - what is actually needed is an understanding of what plants are native to/thrive on a particular soil and coming up with a more customised seed mix and then chucking in some other plants that are better not grown from seed but help with biodiversity. There are some specialist firms that do this but obviously it costs a lot more than the standard packet of seeds.

A slightly easier way for gardens is to look at that sort of wildflowers incorporated in Chelsea show gardens and look to include some of them in flower beds- eg cowparsley (co plant with yarrow for a similar look and longer flowering season) buttercups foxgloves, ground ivy, lavender. And add a few pollinator specific plants with different shaped flowerheads - my buddleia attracts a lot of butterflies whilst the bees prefer lavender and rosemary flowers. We do mow the lawn occasionally but tolerate the wildflowers that grow there like daisies clover and buttercups - even the dandelions get a look in as the leaves are good in a salad.

I’m another one who plants for wildlife but doesn’t rewild. I grow for pollinators but it also looks nice. We have sweet peas covered in bumble bees, salvias, mallows, cornflowers that are all popular with insects. Our sweet peas are huge and dense so snails love them and don’t do meaningful damage.
I let dandelions flower as they are brilliant for nectar and pollen, we have clover in our lawn. Herbs are allowed to flower and brambles and raspberries grow by the fence.
None of this rewilding but we have loads of insects and birds and we live in London.

We have lots of flowers and plants that attract the pollinators and small trees for the birds. I've noticed lots more birds this year because I hang food out for them. The front lawn has gone wild to strengthen the grass and it's also full of clover flowers, which the bees are loving. We also have a resident toad who lives under the shed. I have a small wildlife pond too.

I think, as long as it's planned, a wild garden is great.

Nettles are the larval foodplant of several of our largest butterflies. Mosquitoes, ticks and horse flies are also wildlife. Are you sure you're seeing Giant Hogweed (an alien) rather than Hogweed (a native)? Do you know the differences between them?

So, IMO, it’s public landowners (Councils) that need to stop enthusiastically embracing the excuse that they are helping the environment just because it saves them money! Councils are replacing "amenity grassland" - is short mown areas of grassland - by, usually, mixed annuals of various provenance rather than UK wildflowers, and so are making a huge difference to wildlife. Our local park, by mere dint of reducing mowing to once a year, has seen the growth of a population of orchids, from 1 in the first year to over 60 this year. It's hard to argue with that.

Yes of course we need areas of short grass for games of football and cricket, but we don't need everywhere to be short.

I believe the reason it’s coming back is because of the lack of regular mowing in public places. Giant Hogweed isn't "coming back". It was introduced as an ornamental plant for gardens 200 years ago, escaped into the wild and has continued to spread. Most people can't tell the difference between Giant Hogweed and a large specimen of our native Hogweed.

@MereDintofPandiculation I know about nettles and their importance, but I don’t think they should grow over narrow footpaths.
I also said (2nd post) that I wish councils would keep footpaths clear and mow a decently wide path into meadows, instead of leaving it all long.
I don’t know where you’re based, (I’m in the South-East) but I’ve seen more Giant Hogweed (really) in the wild this year, and in places where it hasn’t grown before, and I’ve also heard that some people have been injured by it recently (friends of my DC).