9 Reasons You Should Rewild Your Garden This Year
Formal, tidy gardens are out, and messy, wild ones are in! Rewilding your space benefits you, the local wildlife, and the surrounding environment. Make some small changes this year for huge impacts later on. Here, native plant gardener Jerad Bryant shares nine reasons to rewild your garden.
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We can all assume what “rewilding” means, but what does it mean exactly? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to “rewild” means, “to return to a more natural or wild state: to make or become natural or wild again.”
To build homes and gardens, developers removed much of what existed in cities and suburbs before development. Deserts, forests, and mountains became flat suburbs, skyscrapers, and shopping centers. The opposite of rewilding was done to make space for our growing populations.
Though development was necessary at the time, what we need now is rewilding! To help the animals, bugs, and plants that existed before us, we must convert our yards into wild spaces that support us as much as they do local wildlife.
If I haven’t convinced you to rewild the garden yet, these nine reasons will do the trick! You’ll learn the many reasons why messy, wild spaces are crucial for the health of our planet.
Gardens Improve Mental Health
Perhaps the most important human reason for rewilding gardens is to boost mental health. Working in the dirt, planting new plants, and pruning old specimens may increase happiness-inducing chemicals in your brain. Gardening can give you peace, boost your mood, and keep you physically fit!
One study found that individuals who spent two hours a week in natural spaces received significant health benefits. Though the study didn’t include gardens in their counting of “wild spaces,” rewilding your yard can convert it into a natural space that feels like the wild.
Laborious acts of converting lawns to planting beds, weeding, and cultivating keep you physically fit and able. Bending over, lifting things, and walking around are great ways to exercise if you struggle to go to the gym, like I do.
Help Local Pollinators
You help yourself when you rewild your space, but you also help hungry bugs! Bees, butterflies, moths, birds, and bats are all animals that pollinate flowers. They use their long tongues to lap up sweet nectar and foraging legs to gather protein-rich pollen.
To rewild, you’ll plant native plants, flowering shrubs, and blooming annuals. The more flowers and leaves that fill your garden, the more space there is for these hungry bugs. Native plants are the best types to grow, as they feed local pollinators that struggle to get pollen from non-native plants.
Pollinator gardens are an easy way to begin the rewilding process. Convert lawns, empty beds, and raised beds into patches full of wildflowers. Many flowering perennials thrive in gardens, and annuals like sunflowers and phacelia often reseed themselves.
Boost Predatory Insect Numbers
Alongside the pollinators, wild gardens host predatory insects, unlike plant-less, lawn-filled spaces. Predators, like wasps, pirate bugs, and ladybugs, prefer living in areas with lots of cover. Rewilding creates extra spaces for them to inhabit.
Though predatory wasps sound scary, they won’t harm you if you don’t harm them! Many use caterpillars to host their larvae—they lay eggs inside them that cannibalize the caterpillars from the inside out! Wasps can control many other species, like flies, leafhoppers, and scale insects.
Other bugs are less invasive, like ladybugs. They eat aphids and other small insects that harm your tender plants. The more predators in your yard, the less pest control you’ll have to do. Invite them by planting flowering perennials, trees, and shrubs.
Provide Habitats
Predators and pollinators aren’t the only animals that benefit from a natural garden; birds, squirrels, and snakes are some of the many creatures that love hiding under cover. The more cover you give them, the more likely they are to come into your space.
One easy way to start is to leave the leaves in the fall. This simple change adds dozens of new spaces for fireflies, bumblebees, and ladybugs to overwinter. Make piles of fallen leaves, scatter them as mulch, or cover your raised beds.
Another simple way to provide a habitat is by adding piles of logs, pine cones, or twigs. Wood piles host garden snakes, bugs, and spiders that control insect pests.
It’s also important to provide fresh water sources for all the animals you’re inviting into your garden. Add a birdbath, a pond, or a water fountain, or leave out dishes with water in your veggie beds. Change the water every few days to prevent mosquitoes from laying eggs.
Fewer Weeds
To rewild is to emulate nature, and fewer weeds is yet another reason to embrace a wilder garden. If you walk through an old, established forest, you may notice very few weeds among the mature shrubs, perennials, and trees. By letting native plants and well-behaved garden ornamentals spread, you emulate a natural forest or hillside.
The plants you cultivate will cover the ground and shade it out. Weed seeds struggle to germinate without light, and any seeds that do sprout will struggle to get a footing. Ample roots and shoots from your tender plants will already fill the space, which prevents the weeds from thriving.
To rewild, add compost or a similar organic mulch onto bare soil. The mulch softens the ground and prevents weeds from sprouting. Not only will you have fewer weeds, but the ones that do sprout will be easy to pull.
Surprise Seedlings
Alongside fewer weeds, you’ll have volunteer seedlings to deal with! Some surprise plants pop up when you let their seed heads linger. Coneflowers, sunflowers, zinnias, borage, and parsley are some of the many flowers and herbs that like to reseed.
Native annuals are the most likely to reseed themselves, as they evolved to grow in your local region. Consider letting them grow if they’re not invading your veggie plots—and let some grow in the veggie beds too! Flowers lure pollinators, which in turn pollinate your crops.
When you don’t want a volunteer plant to grow, pull it up and throw it on the ground. It’ll decay where you throw it, covering the soil and preventing weeds from growing in its place.
Less Work to Do
A messy and wilder garden means less work during the growing season! The less lawn you have, the less mowing you’ll have to do. The fewer weeds there are, the less weed pulling that’s necessary. Rather than looking at the yard as a chore, you’ll begin to see it as an oasis from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Though there will be less work in some areas, there may be additional work in others. Composting, mulching, and planting all require some labor. The nice thing is that you won’t be spending your time mowing, spraying, or raking leaves. Embrace the wild side, and your local environment will thank you.
Sequester Carbon
You sequester carbon when you rewild! Carbon sequestration is a term for the process of moving carbon away from our atmosphere and into other areas. Soil is one of the major sequestration sites; the porous spaces underground trap the air, holding it where plant roots can access it if they need to.
Plants take in carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, and they store the carbon in their leaves, stems, and roots. After they die, the carbon stays underground where the plants decay.
Other ways of storing carbon include leaving fallen leaves, adding mulch to the garden, and planting trees. Combine these rewilding efforts to create a lush space while combating climate change.
More Flowers for Bouquets
The more flowering plants you have, the more material you’ll have for arrangements and bouquets! Lilacs, hydrangeas, and hellebores are perfect for creating floral displays indoors. Their sweet-smelling blossoms add charm to living rooms, dining tables, and coffee tables.
For the most cutting material, plant flowering specimens that bloom over different periods. Hydrangeas bloom in late summer, and lilacs in early spring; consider the period between the two. You can also make successive sowings to prolong the bloom period of each species.
