We share our world with other beings – animals, insects, fungi, slime molds, bacteria, plants. By establishing ourselves and creating our home spaces we have altered and disturbed the home spaces of others. See yourself as part of of something special: all life. Share your home with other beings, our more-than-human kin.
It’s a Way of Life
Rewilding is a mindset and a practice – the conversion of your outdoor living spaces into functional, healthy, and flourishing ecosystems. This requires some letting go of control but, through this release, comes enhanced biological activity in your garden, increased connectivity with other rewilded and naturally-occurring spaces, and the building of vital ecological relationships in which you are an active participant!
Rewilding the garden has benefits that extend beyond the plants themselves.
If you want more pollinator diversity, plant more native plants.
Native bees and butterflies flourish where high quality nectar and pollen are available.
If you want to restore mycorrhizal diversity, plant more native plants.
Plant roots interact with fungi, bacteria, insects and other soil organisms in a complex network of interactions. A diversity of plants contributes to the ecosystem services provided through this underground network.
As we consider plants as our kin, we think less that they are a commodity to be purchased and more of a friend we would like to welcome into our family. A kind of ‘adoption’.
There are different scales of native plant adoption. Choose the one that works best for you and your current lifestyle.
Like icebergs in the ocean, there’s as much, if not more, going on beneath the soil in meadows, out of sight, than there is visible above the ground. And because they are filled with a diversity of plants, they support a diversity of life: from the crucial microbial level to birds, bees, and butterflies, all kinds of creatures are found in meadow ecologies.
John Greenlee, The American Meadow Garden: Creating a Natural Alternative to the Traditional Lawn (2009)