3 Tips to Make Your World Beautifully Wild | Isabella Tree | TED

Overview

Isabella Tree shares her transformative journey of rewilding her failing farmland into a thriving ecosystem and offers practical, actionable tips for anyone to rewild their own green spaces, from backyards to urban parks. She emphasizes the ecological, personal, and aesthetic benefits of embracing nature's messiness and unpredictability.

Notable Quotes

- Rewilding is about embracing the messy and the unpredictable. It's about letting go. It's about rewilding ourselves. – Isabella Tree

- Imagine if all those gardeners thought differently, if they put away the artificial fertilizer and the herbicides and began to think of themselves as a keystone species. – Isabella Tree

- In just three years, biodiversity has increased 35 percent in our rewilded garden. – Isabella Tree

🌿 The Power of Rewilding

- Rewilding isn't limited to vast landscapes; it can happen in backyards, urban parks, or even window boxes.

- Isabella and her husband transformed their 3,500-acre Knepp Estate, once failing farmland, into a thriving ecosystem by working with nature rather than against it.

- Introducing free-roaming animals like cattle, ponies, pigs, and deer helped restore biodiversity and soil health, pulling down carbon and creating habitats for endangered species like nightingales and turtle doves.

- Rewilding can also generate income through wildlife tourism and sustainable meat production.

🌱 Rewilding Small Spaces

- Even small spaces like gardens, balconies, and urban parks can be rewilded to support biodiversity.

- Isabella rewilded her one-acre Victorian walled garden, increasing biodiversity by 35% in just three years.

- Public spaces, such as the Tower of London and the Field Museum in Chicago, have been transformed into wildflower meadows and vital habitats for pollinators and migrating birds.

🛠️ Three Tips for Rewilding Your Green Space

1. Create Texture and Variety:

- Introduce lumps and bumps like crushed brick, concrete, or sand to mimic natural landscapes and support diverse plant and wildlife.

- Opt for wildflowers and plants that thrive in poor soil conditions to save water and reduce maintenance.

1. Think Like a Herbivore:

   • Manage plants by mimicking the behavior of grazing animals, such as pulling out dominant species or pruning selectively.
     
   • Replace traditional lawns with wildflower or chamomile lawns, and mow strategically to create a mosaic of habitats.
     

2. Find Life in Death:

   • Leave dead wood, leaves, and seedheads to provide habitat, natural fertilizer, and food for wildlife.
     
   • Embrace weeds like dandelions and clover as valuable contributors to biodiversity.
     

🐝 Changing Perspectives on Nature

- Rewilding challenges traditional aesthetics of control and perfection in gardening, encouraging a shift toward valuing messiness and unpredictability.

- Observing and supporting wildlife, such as bees, can foster a deeper connection with nature.

- By rethinking green spaces, individuals can play a crucial role in combating biodiversity loss and climate change.

🏙️ Rewilding Urban Spaces

- Urban areas, including cemeteries, bus shelters, and high-rise balconies, can become nature reserves.

- Vertical gardens on tower blocks can capture carbon, clean air, and provide insulation.

- Rewilding public monuments and streets can transform cities into havens for wildlife and people alike.