KNEPP REWILDED WALLED GARDEN: The Big Garden Birdwatch

What a privilege. I was invited, along with my livestream box, to visit the Knepp rewilded Walled Garden. A stunning location and a fascinating place to listen in across the three days of the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch, and record some of the bird species. And there were plenty, of all colour, from blue tits to greenfinch to goldfinch. And the night was alive with the calls of tawny owls. These days also coincided with storm Éowyn, so the box had to be strapped down to a pine tree, to withstand the high winds and torrential rain. I can report that it survived!
The gardens are quite extraordinary, having seen the original walled garden and now its transformation. This is how Knepp explains this project:
“We’ve taken what we’ve learnt from the wider rewilding project to spark a new way of thinking about how a garden can function as a dynamic ecosystem. It is about setting the stage, creating a new baseline, and then working with nature to create a complex mosaic of habitats to maximise opportunities for insects, birds and other life. As rewilding gardeners, we become the keystone species – a proxy for the larger animals in the landscape whose disturbance creates opportunities for everything else. This is not about ‘letting go’, allowing a garden to revert to brambles and trees. This is about thinking like a beaver, or a wild boar. It is about giving nature more space to evolve, intervening judiciously, always looking for greater complexity but trying not to dictate the outcomes.“
To learn more see here or visit with an Ecology of the Rewilded Garden tour. See instagram for some of the recordings.
